Alena and the Morph Machine
by Azure Butterfly
Summary: We've all seen those stories where a group of courageous kids fight off an evil team. This isn't one of those stories. This is a story about a bunch of exceedingly confused kids trying to figure out why someone would want to turn people into Pokémon.
1. Start of a New Adventure

"Salamence! Use Draco Meteor!" The enormous blue Pokémon roared viciously, charging a ball of blue light in his mouth. His trainer quivered as he waited for the attack to finish charging. The twelve-year old had lost in the Hoenn League Championship two times already, and he wasn't prepared to lose again.

However, his opponent looked even more intense than he was. She was a girl of around fifteen, very tall and slender, with flowing green hair. Her eyes were a deep emerald, and seemed to pierce the soul of anyone she looked at. Her clothes were just as elegant and terrifying as the girl herself – a straight, deep green dress and a pair of high-heeled boots. The girl's name was Jade Esmer – and, as you could probably guess, she was a very showy person. She had donned the fancy dress and shoes simply to throw off the opponent – and so far, it seemed to be working.

"Airlia! Get in there with Dragon Claw!" Jade commanded in an icy voice. Her Altaria wheeled around and started to slash at the other Dragon-type with glowing talons. The Salamence roared in pain and took to the skies, all thought of actually attacking the troublesome opponent leaving his head. Airlia fluttered above her trainer, occasionally sending Ice Beams towards the terrified Salamence. The blue Pokémon was hit directly in the stomach and collapsed to the ground. Now was the time for the final blow. Airlia glowed with a brilliant light. Salamence's trainer screamed at him to get out of the way, but the exhausted Dragon-type could only watch in horror as the Sky Attack came at him.

"And the winner is Jade Esmer!"

Alena sighed in relief, fiddling with a Premier Ball in her hands. She was younger than Jade – somewhere around thirteen – and the differences didn't stop there. Her hair was plain, a sort of light brown color, and held back with a blue headband. She wore a simple t-shirt and a pair of tan shorts. Her eyes were a light blue, almost grey, and seemed to peak out shyly from her face.

"_Jade won?"_a tiny voice asked from her side. Alena glanced down with an annoyed look, glaring at a Pikachu with a strange mark under his left eye.

"Of course she did, Electrinz. These are just the preliminaries, the people who don't have all eight badges. Most of them are terribly weak. The only reason Jade is in them is because her father refuses to give her his badge." Jade's father was Norman – the leader of Petalsburg City. Jade… well; let's just say that she and her father did not have a very good relationship.

Electrinz frowned. _"How much longer until we get to battle? I want to help win the League too! This is boring!"_

"Just be patient," Alena told him. "Jade has one more match, and then she'll move onto the finals, I'm sure." So saying, she glanced up at the TV and immediately wished she hadn't.

Jade's next opponent had flashed up on the screen. He was the same age as her, and appeared to have a volcanic eruption taking place on top of his head. His clothes were an array of dark colors. Even Jade, who was normally cool and composed, looked as though her eyes were about to pop out of her head.

"Tyler Burn," Alena hissed. "That ass from the Sinnoh region. He's strong, but he's not very clever. He's easily tricked, and relies too much on power. He uses mostly Fire-types, but his starter Pokémon was Piplup. His main battler is Houndoom, and he has a Tyranitar that's a total powerhouse. Guy's pretty damn terrifying, in all honesty. They say that the only reason he's not the Champion of all of the regions yet is because of his uncanny ability to be disqualified. Likes to swear at the referees if they make a call that doesn't benefit him in some way."

Both of them winced as they saw the first Pokémon Tyler had sent out. Tyranitar. Alena averted her eyes as Jade sent out Tide, her Azumarill. The tiny Water-type was Jade's absolute worst Pokémon. She… well, to put it bluntly, never meant to capture the Pokémon, let alone train it, but he had been pretty much forced upon her as an Azurill by some old couple. Now, Jade had spent hours training him, but the most he ever did was beat a few, weak, wild Pokémon. For the most part, he was used for ferrying her across the sea, but never for battling. Because of this, Jade never sent him out unless she was trying to mind game the opponent somehow.

Either that or she had just given up completely.

"Tyranitar!" Tyler growled in an enraged voice, as though someone had just stepped on his foot. "Stone Edge!"

"Tide!" Jade commanded. "Counter it with Surf!"

Tyranitar charged at the Azumarill with glowing claws and a terrifying grin. Tide struggled to create a Surf that swirled around him and would hopefully stop the attack. As soon as he managed to get the attack going, Tyranitar slashed through the water, sending twin streams gushing on either side of it. In the middle of the watery tornado, Tide struggled to keep the enormous Rock-type at bay. Even with a type advantage, the Azumarill was simply too weak to touch the green Pokémon. Moments before Tyranitar's glowing claws touched him, Tide released a Blizzard attack.

Back at the waiting room, Alena and Electrinz jumped out of their seats in surprise. "Did you see that?" Alena questioned her Pikachu.

"_Did _you _see that?" _he fired back.

"It seems like Tide's been training – but Jade hasn't let him out of his Poké Ball for weeks now! He must have been training inside the Ball, or sneaking out…"

"_He attacked without her ordering him to. Usually, Pokémon don't do that until they're more experienced! But seeing as how this is Tide doing this… Jade is going to punish him, isn't she?"_

The two looked back at the screen. Tide was still holding Tyranitar back – Blizzard would push the powerful Pokémon to the other end of the stadium, while Surf could protect Tide while he endured the strain of powering the attacks. _"His Power Points are going to wear out before long," _Electrinz commented. "_He won't have the energy left to power the attacks." _

"_That, or he'll be knocked out when he fails to block an attack." _This new speaker had a strange tone to their voice – it was wise, calm, and gentle, but there was a strange feminine touch to it.

"I'd say Twig is probably right here," Alena said under her breath. "Tide is by no means at Tyranitar's level. The only reason that Tyler is even in the Prelims is because he spends all of his time training his Pokémon instead of challenging the Gyms."

Twig leapt over to the others, his pine tree-like tail bristling as he watched the television. The Sceptile was Alena's official starter – she had a Torchic before, but it had passed away before she went on her journey across Hoenn. The Fire-type had a rare disease, and Alena knew that it was doomed to live a short time. Her family had brought it in so it could live its short life in happiness, instead of being forced to fend for itself in the wild.

Twig… well, he was a strange Pokémon. While Electrinz was Alena's closest friend on the team, Twig was her mentor in some ways. He had been able to teach her most of the battle secrets only known to highly ranking trainers – because the secrets were only really secret to humans. Pokémon were able to comprehend the world of battling far more than even the most talented trainers, and made excellent teachers – wise, kind, but very much wild. Aside from his wisdom and battling ability Twig… well, actually, that was the end of his talents. He had a great love for coffee. Oh, and beautiful things. Although the social system of Pokémon was nowhere near as complex as that of humans, Alena knew that even other Pokémon could find Twig a bit… flamboyant.

Electrinz growled under his breath, casting a dark look at the Sceptile when Alena wasn't looking. Although he hated to admit it, Electrinz had a huge rivalry with Alena's starter Pokémon. Electrinz had a strange relationship with Alena – at first, he could not stand her, having been taken away from his home region of Kanto as a Pichu and forced into the strange new environment of the Hoenn Safari Zone. However, once he grew to trust her, Electrinz found that he trusted the girl far more than he had ever trusted the Pikachu girls he had known over his lifetime. Sure, Alena was a human – but there was a part of him that Electrinz knew wanted her attention and affection more than anything else.

Alena herself stood between the two glaring Pokémon, too transfixed by the screen to notice their fighting in the background. She watched in excitement as Tide was flung aside by the Tyranitar, only to get back up and weakly fire a Water Gun at the tremendous beast. The Rock-type sank to its knees, while Tide fell to the ground in a dead faint. Alena gasped as Jade sent out the weakened Airlia, who managed to get in the finishing blow on Tyranitar before collapsing herself.

Alena herself… she had become a trainer at age ten, as was the norm. Well… technically, she began when she was nine, but she was only a month away from being ten. The April before she turned ten – that's when she started journeying. Twig was the first Pokémon she caught, followed by Sander. Sander was a Flygon, and had a tendency to become obsessed with different Pokémon that she saw in magazines or TV. Her current infatuation was with Drake's Shelgon of the Elite Four. Whishcast was next – the little Pokémon was exceedingly mysterious – the only thing Alena knew about her was that she was incredibly young, had evolved under strange circumstances, had been a part of Team Aqua's mysterious experiments at one point, and was obsessed with glitter, sparkles, and bows. Electrinz was the newest member of the team – as previously stated, he was caught in the Safari Zone, but had been born in Kanto.

Alena was a person who had deep, long lasting passions for the things she enjoyed, and indifference to those that failed to entertain, educate, or serve any other useful purpose. She seemed to prefer the company of her Pokémon to that of other people, but that was hardly surprising. Alena had always been somewhat withdrawn, preferring to play with herself rather than with other children. She was… different from the rest, in more ways than one. You see, in the world Alena lived in, there were certain people who were born with gifts. Some people would grow up to be incredible artists or amazing businessmen. Some people were born with the ability to dance, or paint, or write. Some people were destined to be amazing trainers right from the get-go – of course, while Alena was a talented trainer presently, she had not always been as good and still took a while to learn certain things about battling. Some people could raise Pokémon amazingly, while others could teach them to make their attacks beautiful and powerful at the same time. Some people were able to understand the hearts of those around them, as though they were Psychic, although this was rarely the case. Alena, however? She was the exact opposite. She had two talents – one extraordinary, one mundane – but, which one was which depended on who you asked.

Alena had been born with the ability to speak to Pokémon. Throughout the country, there were plenty of people that had this ability, but it was still rare enough to warrant a double take when you first saw someone conversing with the strange creatures. It was perhaps this ability that had made Alena so detached from the humans around her – with their strange social orders and nonsensical thoughts, Alena felt closer to the Pokémon around her than with the humans. Her other gift? Alena was able to understand herself in a way that most people could not quite grasp. Every one of her reactions to something was something that she herself could have predicted. Everything she did was predictable to her, even though it might have surprised even those who knew her best.

Alena was… odd.

"Jade's loosing," Alena said in a flat sort of voice. "I didn't think she'd win against Tyler anyway." As though something had suddenly come over her, Alena stood up and walked in the direction of the locker rooms, prompting both of the bickering Pokémon to stop and rush after their trainer in worry.

"_Alena? What are you thinking?" _Electrinz asked, careful not to put too much of a nosey edge to his voice. He knew that Alena hated that.

"We'll be battling soon. If we can get the plan for the tournament – who's going against who – I'll be able to devise a strategy based on the people I'll likely be facing. All we need is the file on the computer, and the offices should be over here…" Alena darted into a side hallway, her eyes glowing with a radiance they only sported when she was in her element – when she was comfortable, happy, excited.

"_Isn't that cheating?" _Twig asked scornfully.

Alena looked back at him, smiling. "Unquestionably. But then again, do you really think any of the big name trainers got where they are with their purity and innocence intact?" So saying, the girl darted into a small room, donned a pair of white gloves, and began to see exactly who she would be up against.


	2. Team Thunder Appears

Now, Alena was not the kind of person who would lie or steal or cheat unless there was a very good reason. In this case, her reason was that most of the other competitors had already done the same – all of the highly-regarded trainers (including Tyler Burn) were notorious for stealing the league personal's ID tags just so they could get the information quickly. Alena would never cheat if she was the only one getting the advantage, or if her actions could hurt any of the other competitors.

Of course, she was going to be getting this information far ahead of the other competitors who would be doing the same… With the ID tags they had snatched, they would be able to access the employee's information, but that was itself delayed. The same information could be grabbed much earlier if only you could get into the League Chairman's files – and luckily for her, Alena knew someone that could do just that.

"Alletto," she whispered into a small device wrapped around her wrist. "I'm at their offices. Computers all on – so which one is the main one that it's supposed to be on?"

Another voice came out of the device, one a bit too loud for Alena's liking. "Should be towards the back. It's made to look just like the others, but if you look carefully, there will be a thick purple wire snaking across the floor to it. That's the connection to the guy's room up above." Alena looked up at the ceiling and sure enough, a sizable purple wire came down from the ceiling, ran across the center of the room, and connected into the back of an otherwise unnotable computer sitting on top of a metal desk. The entire room resembled a computer lab from a school somewhere, but that one computer stood out once Alena took a closer look at it. While the other computers were of the same grade as the school computers, this one had a much larger CPU that appeared to be brand new.

"Got it. Now what?"

Hundreds of miles away, in Petalsburg City, a young boy flipped through the pages of a large, hardcover book. He was younger than Alena – around twelve – and wore large, green glasses of the same color as the beetles you often found in your garden. His shirt was also green, but his pants were khaki, and covered in a myriad of pockets and straps. His skin was pale, but not yet to the point where you would think he was sickly – although he had been spending most of his time inside lately, he had just come back from his journey across the Hoenn region, and his tan hadn't quite worn off. His eyes looked thoughtful, but there was a spark in them – a look that he held when he was having quite a good idea.

"Take that Pokétch I gave you and pull out the green part – there should be a USB drive. Plug that into the computer and let it do its thing." The boy – Alletto – closed the book and waited patiently for a moment. Alena must have done as he said, because his computer gave a pleasant beeping noise and dozens of files suddenly popped up. After sorting them by file size and throwing away the ones that were too big or too small, he started to work with all sorts of other things that cannot even be explained to the average person.

Back at Ever Grande City, Alena grinned as the printer booted up and started to print the order of the tournament. "Got it," she whispered into the modified Pokétch's mic.

"Good. Take out the Pokétch and dispose of it somehow. Throw it into the ocean. We need to destroy it as quickly as possible. Good luck at your competition!"

"Thanks," Alena whispered back, yanking the device out and darting out of the room. Her Pokémon, caught off guard, rushed after her without a backwards glance at the computer.

"Okay," Alena muttered to herself. "Up against some kid from Johto first – that's fine, the kid is a total wimp anyway. Looks like he's got really low level Pokémon… but then again, most of the trainers from Johto do. I can beat him easily, so I'll probably go against… this guy, almost certainly. Kanto region, looks tougher – but most of his Pokémon are powerhouses, and look incredibly slow and easy to trick. After him…" her voice trailed off.

Both Electrinz and Twig knew that it would be a few minutes before she would talk to them again about the strategies they needed to work on. Until then, she would probably be content to ramble on about the most likely strategies of the other competitors, and whether or not she should take out some of her weaker Pokémon from the PC. Electrinz couldn't help but sigh as she rambled on about taking her Gardevoir or Vileplume or Sealeo out of storage – all of them would go down in one hit to the Pokémon in the League. Alena had exclusively trained the four Pokémon she liked the most, and as a consequence, had only four strong Pokémon and a couple of mediocre ones. She often said something about pulling one of the others out of the PC but never actually went through with it.

"Fine. So I'll put Twig up front…"

Just as Alena seemed to be winding down, running out of fuel for her plotting, a huge crash reverberated through the building. _"What was that?" _Electrinz shouted, darting over to Alena and sitting on one of her feet as though to protect her from the noise. Twig jumped over his trainer's head, Leaf Blades activated and ready to slash away the threat.

"Sounded like something fell. Something big, like… oh! The metal gates leading into the stadium! Something just attacked them?" Alena gasped and grabbed onto Twig's Leaf Blades before he could jump into battle. "Conserve your energy, Twig! Can't you hear those footsteps?"

The Sceptile stopped what he was doing and concentrated on the sounds ahead. There were sounds of a scuffle – someone fighting against a group of other people and failing. Then there were heavier footsteps, nearly drowning out the sound of much lighter ones…

"_It's Burn," _Twig growled. "_I can hear his Tyranitar, and it's being herded by the officials' Vaporeon. They're saying something else, too…"_

"_He's being disqualified," _Electrinz cut in, his ears more attuned to high-pitched sounds – such as Burn's whiny voice. _"It seems like he gave his Tyranitar a Choice Band and a Choice Scarf at the same time. He beat Jade before they found out, so it looks like the results will have to be drawn up again… oh dear."_

"This is completely useless now, isn't it?" Alena muttered, holding up the schedule sheet she had just nicked off the computer.

"_Most likely," _Twig told her in his calm way.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"You know what?" Alena growled. "I'm just going to go out there and figure out a strategy on the spot. Who wants to go out and get ice cream?"

The suggestion was met with general approval.

* * *

"Electrinz! Try Iron Tail!"

The Pikachu nodded and shot off for the Metagross in front of him. Metagross's trainer looked amused as the tiny Pokémon shot forward with a metallic tail, knowing full well that the Pokémon would hardly do any damage at all.

"It's time to end this!" the older boy shouted. "Metagross, Earthquake that rat back where it belongs!" Both the Steel-type and his trainer wore identical looks on their faces – one of completely evil intent. Fortunately, Alena was used to this. It seemed as though she were required to run into at least one person who wanted to rip Trinz apart per week. More and more people seemed to be churning up that wanted to hurt Electrinz as much as possible simply because he was a Pikachu.

Needless to say, Alena was proud to show them exactly why his species was widely regarded across the country.

"Trinz! Jump up and whip Iron Tail beneath you!" Moments before the Metagross could release his attack, Electrinz jumped into the air with the agility his species was known for and spun his glowing tail beneath him. Like one of the seeds that fell from maple trees, the Pikachu hovered a short distance behind the Metagross before floating to the ground. While Metagross and his trainer were still wondering what had just happened, Electrinz hit the Steel-type with a Light Ball boosted Thunderbolt. Metagross fell down after giving the Pikachu one last terrifying glare.

Instead of cheers, the crowd muttered darkly. That was normally the case whenever Electrinz beat anyone – it seemed as though no one could ever believe that the not fully evolved Pokémon could ever beat a powerhouse like Metagross. Electrinz jumped into Alena's arms and the two of them exited the stadium without a backwards glance.

"We're getting too used to that," Alena said quietly. "Everywhere we go, someone's whining about how a Pikachu beat their prized Dragonite – haven't they ever heard of a Light Ball? Or levels?"

"_Light Ball?_"Electrinz echoed. _"Probably not. If they hate Pikachu so much, why would they know anything half useful about us? Levels, probably yes – but they're stupid enough to believe that only a Pikachu forty levels above could possibly beat their stupid Metagross. Then again, that Metagross went down in one hit… it probably _was_ twenty levels lower."_

Both of them sighed as they went through the metal gate, still bent in places from Tyranitar's outrage. Alena slid her trainer card through a slot in the wall and proceeded back to the waiting room without much enthusiasm. She knew that there would be plenty of people there just waiting to leer at her and accuse her of cheating during that battle. Humph. One of the few times she wasn't able to cheat the system, but she still got accused of it anyway. Not like the people accusing her were innocent either – they and their stolen ID cards had almost certainly gotten the updated schedule, rather than the one Alena had downloaded. Alena made a mental note to talk to Alletto about making a device that could receive updates about the schedule while it was still being tweaked.

Sure enough, the moment Alena walked into the room, a few dozen angry eyes turned their glare upon her and Electrinz. Most of them belonged to competitors who had already lost – mostly likely to Electrinz himself, or else to someone who had destroyed them only to be stopped by the Pikachu next round. As the losers stuffed all of their stuff from their lockers into their backpacks, they made sure to give Electrinz a special glare that looked as though they were plotting his demise.

"Ignore them," Alena whispered to him. "I won't let them touch you. Most of them are just embarrassed because they don't want to admit the reason they lost is because they suck, not because we cheated." Electrinz smiled and snuggled up to Alena happily. As the two of them left the room, a few of the people looked at the items they held in their hands, as though wondering whether or not to throw them.

"_I wish there was a way to make those idiots realize how dumb they are,"_ Electrinz growled.

"I wish there was a way to turn them all into Pikachu themselves so they'd have to shut up."

The moment the words left her mouth, Alena felt a strange feeling come over her. She suddenly felt lightheaded – the world in front of her seemed to waver. She knew at that moment, something was about to happen. The last time she had felt that feeling – that sensation of dizziness accompanied by the blurriness – she had run into Team Magma for the first time.

As if the world was hearing her thoughts, a man walked out in front of her. His clothes were more than a little odd – black pants, black shirt, and a yellow vest. There was a strange symbol printed all over them – an orange T with a green thunderbolt behind it. The man's shirt was short-sleeved, allowing Alena to see the variety of strange, glowing machines strapped to his arm. He was… undoubtedly… part of some organization. But the question that remained to be asked – was he up to no good?

"Good day," he told her in a calm voice. "Are you one of the competitors here?"

Thinking that it would be best to play along with the man, Alena humored his question. "Yes. I'm from Littleroot Town."

The man looked down at one of the strange machines on his arm. "Yes, Littleroot… that would make you… Ab-"

"Alena!" she cut in before the man could finish his sentence. "My name is Alena. Yes, I'm one of the trainers here! What else would I be doing, coming out of the waiting room that only the competitors are allowed into?"

Noticing the girl's sudden discomfort, the man tried to change the subject. "That is a very nice looking Pikachu you have there." In her arms, Electrinz stiffened. "We have many Pikachu back at the base, but none of them are quite as healthy looking as yours. You see, we specialize in Electric-types." The man gestured to one of the strange marks on his uniform. "Team Thunder. We are… looking for talented trainers to join us. But, it seems like you might be a bit busy right now…"

Team Thunder? With a name like that, Alena knew something was up. And - had the man seriously just invited her to join them?

Before she could say anything, the man had turned to look down a different hallway. "We'll be around," he told her calmly. "And I think, someday… those people back at the waiting room might just learn the error of their ways."

As the man walked away from her, Alena shuddered and held Electrinz closer to her body.

"_He does smell like Electric-types,"_ Electrinz told her. _"I don't think he's lying."_

Alena looked back at the waiting room, where the people who had previously been scowling at her were preoccupied with their backpacks. "That, Trinz, is exactly what I'm afraid of."

_Those people back at the waiting room might just learn the error of their ways…_


	3. Team Thunder's Base

"So, you lost." The voice held no comfort in it – it was simply a blank statement. Jade's eyes were blank too.

"Yeah," Alena muttered. "Lost in the first round of finals. It was because I couldn't stop thinking of this weird guy I met." Jade scoffed.

"Lost your concentration? How unprofessional." Jade sniffed and adjusted her green dress. "It's a shame that neither of us won. I suppose we'll have to try again next year. Maybe then I'll get where I deserve – in the Hall of Fame."

Alena looked at the other girl with a strange look in her eyes. She remembered something that Electrinz had told her – he had asked her why she and Jade were friends. Alena and Jade had traveled together as a group for the past few months leading up to the league match, but it seemed like every time Alena turned around, Jade was on her case about something new.

Why were they friends?

"Jade?" Alena began.

"If I hadn't been up against Burn, I would've won."

She hadn't always been like this. "Jade," Alena cut in. "I'm going to go travel on my own. I know we've been traveling together for the past few months, but there are a few things I need to do on my own."

"Oh?" Jade asked, raising an eyebrow. "You want to be alone? Well, that's fine. I wouldn't steal your strategies anyway, as they would never fit me. Oh well. I guess I'll be going to Petalsburg. I need to get that last badge one way or another. See you later, dearest." Jade turned sharply on her heel and walked away without a backwards glance.

"She's changed…" Alena muttered quietly.

"_She's always been a horrid person," _Twig told her. _"Perhaps you're just noticing now."_

Alena could not bear to face the Sceptile. The way she had lost in the last battle… Electrinz had been thrown against the ground repeatedly with Psychic attacks, each one more intense than the rest. Alena had to recall him herself before he was seriously hurt, because the opponent was still trying to beat him into submission even after he had fainted. The referee had not called the match… he had taken it as a forfeit… the match went to the opponent, against all rules and regulations…

Just because Electrinz was a Pikachu?

Just because his species was popular?

Was that reason enough to threaten his life?

"We need to go," Alena said without any other explanation. "Twig, return." The Sceptile returned to his Poké Ball without any protest. Alena threw the second ordinary Poké Ball around her belt to the ground, where Sander appeared in a flash of light. The Flygon yawned, stretched her wings, and looked at Alena expectantly.

"_Lilycove, again? Or maybe back to Littleroot?"_ Sander's eyes twinkled curiously behind her red goggles.

"Lilycove, please. Going back to Littleroot… Mom and Dad will keep trying to comfort me on my loss, which is the last thing I need. Professor Birch will nag me about not completing the Pokédex yet…" Alena stopped in midsentence, suddenly digging in her backpack for something. A few moments later, she yanked out her wallet, pulled the zipper open with more force than was probably necessary, and looked at the contents worriedly. "Speaking of which… I'm broke… a few hundred left. I really need to go out and catch more…"

Most trainers got their money through one of two ways. First, they could collect prize money from battles. Unfortunately, Alena had the worst luck and only seemed to get enough money to buy a stick of gum per battle. Not an entire pack of gum, mind you – a stick of it. If that didn't turn out, the trainers would turn to the Pokémon Professors for money. This was not common, but a few people who were terrible at battling but good at capturing would resort to this when times were rough. It looked as though Alena would have to as well.

Hopping on the Flygon's back, Alena pointed to the west. "Towards Lilycove! Tomorrow, we'll have to start working on the Pokédex again. Can't be too hard."

"This is ridiculously hard."

Alena threw away the two halves of yet another Poké Ball. So far, she had managed to capture a whole bunch of Oddish, but no Pokémon that she hadn't caught yet. An Absol had appeared for a brief moment, but the second Alena threw her only Ultra Ball at it, it turned tail and fled into the bushes.

"_Well, to be fair, you aren't really weakening them first," _Electrinz reminded her. _"If they aren't weakened, then nothing bigger than a Zigzagoon or Oddish will stay inside."_ As if to prove his point, another one of Alena's Great Balls bounced off the side of a Duskull.

"This is ridiculous!" Alena shouted, burying her head in her arms. "I'm losing more money than I have in years right now!"

"_Maybe you should ask your parents for a loan. They're rich, aren't they?"_

Alena smacked the Pikachu with a nearby stick. "I can't just live off of my parents forever. I need to find a way to make money, doing something that isn't as pointless as catching weak Pokémon with my battle ready ones."

A strange ruffling in the bushes… and a familiar looking man fell out. With a jolt, Alena realized it was the weird man from the Pokémon League a few days ago, the one from the enigmatic Team Thunder. Now, however, he looked much more tired and very, very beaten up. Bits of dirt and leaves stuck out of his hair, while his arms were covered in those machines and bite marks. He looked as though he had been fighting with wild Pokémon. When he saw Alena, a strange smile crept over his face.

"Ah, you again. That kid from the Pokémon League, Alena. Imagine meeting you here."

"And you… well, you never gave me your name in the first place," Alena told the man, suddenly realizing it herself.

"I'm Agent 205," the man explained, pointing to a badge on his shoulder with the numbers emblazoned in front of the familiar Thunder symbol. "That's all that matters. You look like you could use a job, am I right?"

There was something about the way he offered it that still gave Alena the chills, but there was no way she was going to refuse a job proposal, not in her current state. The way the man had just appeared right now… had he been following her? Well, it didn't matter much. Her Pokémon would protect her. "What sort of job?"

The man's smile widened. "We need talented young people to help us with a new endeavor of ours. Team Thunder is currently attempting to fix some of the broken bonds between humans and Pokémon. However, this task is extremely strenuous and difficult. Without young people to help us reach our goal, I never know how we'll get there!"

"All right, fine," Alena told the man, getting up off the ground and brushing the dirt off of her clothes. "I'll help you, as long as I'm paid for my work." Electrinz clambered up onto her head, nodding furiously in agreement.

Agent 205 chuckled at the Pikachu's reaction. "Right this way. Our base isn't too far from here. We prefer to set up base near the sea, as we've found ways to easily capture energy from the water and the wind." As they passed by the tropical foliage of the forest, the man continued talking to the two, telling them all about Team Thunder's base. There were several rooms for the staff to train their Pokémon in – while most of them had at least one Electric-type, there was a great deal of variety in their Pokémon. There were a few buildings for apartment complexes, and a few smaller buildings for different, specialized projects. When asked what she would be doing, Agent 205 informed Alena that she would be working with the computer system to help with a project currently run by new recruits, mostly children. The way the man described it, Alena found the base to actually be quite nice. Sure, there was an edge of something odd about the whole thing, but nothing was too strange to make Alena stop to think about what exactly she was doing.

"This is where we'll enter the premises," Agent 205 said suddenly, stopping in the middle of the forest with no buildings to be seen whatsoever. At Alena's puzzled look, he added, "the base is entirely underground. Helps the environment, less land used." Well, that made enough sense, but still… Alena grudgingly followed the man down a narrow tunnel leading at least twenty feet under the Earth's surface. When the sloping tunnel finally evened out, Alena found herself in a completely dark area with nothing, not even a tiny light on the floor, to guide her way. From a place far ahead in the strange room, she heard Agent 205's voice call out, "Over here! Follow me! Don't get lost! This place is like a maze inside!"

Too late. The sound of his footsteps was at least twenty feet away, and the second Alena tried to chase after the man's voice, she came face to face with a very solid wall.

"_Maybe I could try to use Flash?" _Electrinz offered helpfully.

"Do you remember the last time you tried to use Flash?" Alena asked sarcastically.

"_I do not recall that."_

"You nearly set the entire house on fire with the uncontrolled sparks flying from your cheeks. I think we'll stick to feeling our way around. Here, this way; I'll carry you." Alena crouched down on the floor, holding out her arms. In the murky tunnels, she could just barely see the outline of her Pikachu coming towards her, and wasn't entirely sure if he was really there or not until she felt his fuzzy body in her arms.

After a few minutes of bumping into walls unexpectedly, tripping over unidentified objects in the dark, and cowering against the wall as something darted past her, Alena finally saw the telltale outline of a door. Without any hesitation, she yanked the door open and slid inside, her breath still coming in ragged gasps.

"You made it!" Agent 205 called from a corner. Alena looked at the man for all of two seconds before turning her attention to the rest of the room, which was far more interesting. Around two dozen computers hummed around the room – top of the line, and well kept to the point where even Alletto would have been impressed. The room itself was constructed of glass and steel polished to a brilliant shine. Around seven or eight kids from the ages of ten to seventeen were taping away at the keyboards of the computers, stopping every so often to get something from a different room. The monitors all displayed some sort of odd program, with pictures of Pokémon scrolling along the left side and some sort of wavy pattern on the right. All in all, the room was nice enough – still odd in the same way that the rest of Team Thunder was, but okay.

"All right, you'll work at this station," Agent 205 began, grabbing Alena by the shoulder and leading her over to one of the computers before she had a chance to protest. "You'll need to work on matching these parts on the right with the Pokémon on the left. Try and find the one that matches the most, which you can see in the middle…"

"Excuse me," Alena cut him off, "but where exactly is the restroom?"

Agent 205 made a strange sound in the back of his throat before turning around, an obviously forced smile on his face. "Through that door and down the hall. Make sure you don't get lost." Alena nodded and ran out of the room with Electrinz following at her side. A few of the kids working on the computers stopped to turn and look at them as they passed by, but most of them just ignored the two.

"This way," Alena whispered, darting down the hall and rounding a corner. As Electrinz followed his trainer through the halls, he wondered exactly what she was planning on doing. He found his answer when she darted into a broom closet, scaled the wooden shelves, and pushed a ceiling tile out of the way. Electrinz followed her as she snuck through the hole, tested her weight on the metal supports, and gestured for him to follow.

"I'm looking for something," she told him simply. "If we can find the boss's office, we'll be able to tell what's actually going on."

"_These guys don't seem all that bad…"_ Electrinz told her unhappily. _"They just… well, they're really weird. That seems to be the gist of it all. Why are you so sure that something's up?"_

Alena suddenly stopped. Electrinz kept going and ran straight into her shoe, but before he could mutter an apology, Alena grabbed him and clamped a hand over his mouth. As she leaned over to take a closer look through a small hole in the tile in front of her, Electrinz could tell just why Alena had stopped.

"Stop struggling," a cruel voice snarled. "It'll only make the pain of it worse."

"It's one of those Thunder guys," Alena whispered to her Pokémon. "There's someone else trapped in a weird cage, and there's a ton of weird tubes connected to them. When the guy presses something on his computer, the wires begin to glow. But… I can't see what's happening anymore…"

"_We need to get out of here. You're right, something bad is going on here."_

"There's no time for that…" Alena said quietly. "Agent 205 is probably looking for us right now. I left the door to that closet wide open, even though I put the tile back… We're going to fight our way out."


	4. Escaping the Base

"_You'd say something like that, wouldn't you?" _Electrinz sighed. _"How are we supposed to take on an entire team of nutcases?"_

"We battle them, obviously. They can't be that strong. We'll have to be stealthy and try to take them out one by one though… and probably knock them out and hide them in a closet or something…"

Alena continued to ramble on as she clambered over to a nearby tile, pulled it back, and jumped down without any hesitation. Whipping out Twig and Sander's Poké Balls and aiming them in opposite directions down the hall, one in each hand, Alena waited for any sign of a Team Thunder employee.

None came.

"_Alena? I think most of them are busy doing something in one of the rooms…" _

Alena replaced the Poké Balls on her belt and shuffled down the hall dejectedly. "No butt kicking?" she asked sadly. "If there were any in the halls, I would have taken them out right away…"

"_There's no time to think of that! We need to be stealthy!" _Electrinz hissed. _"Do you see the locking mechanism on the doors?"_ Alena took a closer look around the hallway and sure enough, there was some strange metal device attached to every door in the hallway.

"We can disengage the locking mechanism…" Alena started.

"_Lock it so they can't get out…"_ Electrinz continued.

"And use some of the doors as a shortcut to get out!"

"_There's only one problem… we have no idea how to get around here, and the entire building is underground."_

Alena grinned. "Oh, I might have seen something while we were crawling around the attic space. There's an underwater harbor of some sort down that hallway. If we can find some sort of scuba gear or the like, we'll be able to escape that way.

Electrinz nodded. _"All right, let's find this door system's main computer. I can feel strong electrical signals from down the hall, and I'd be willing to bet a week's worth of cheese that that's the core that controls the door system."_

Alena looked towards the end of the hall, where a large, ominous purple door seemed to glare at her. "So… we lock all the doors and cut off the power, then sneak through the halls, taking out stragglers… and escape."

"_Sounds good to me,"_ Electrinz said with a grin, darting over to the huge door. The Pikachu took a running leap at the door handle, only to overshoot it and crash into the door. Almost immediately, two grunts kicked the door open, an Electrode and some strange blue lion at their sides. The two Electric-types growled and spit at Alena the moment they saw her, but the young girl merely smiled.

"You!" one of the grunts shouted. "What are you doing running around the halls? Are you one of the experiments?"

"What if I am?" Alena asked with an innocent smile.

The grunts recoiled suddenly, taking a few steps away from Alena as though stung. The one who had spoken first stared at her as though she were some sort of monster. When Electrinz dashed in between the two and sat at Alena's feet protectively, the second one growled. "You're one of the ones that Zane was looking for… the ones with those weird powers. I can sense the electromagnetic waves emitted from your brain activity… You're one of the ones we need to complete our operation!"

"But 304!" the first one whined. "What if it _is _one of the experiments too? What if they successfully gave the powers to it? They would have to fiddle around with the innermost part of its brain, so it would probably go mad if they did something wrong! That's why it's coming after us!"

304 smacked his partner across the face. "248, you moron!" he shouted, temporarily forgetting about Alena and Electrinz. "That's a girl, not an it! And those experiments were cancelled months ago and the results destroyed. This one is a naturally gifted one… but, just because she is gifted does not mean that she isn't an escaped experiment. Do you remember the other experiments going on right now?"

"I'm not high enough rank!" 248 whined.

"The genetic experiments, fueled by the leader's own knowledge and the blueprints those former Rocket scientists brought over. If she's one of them, there's no way for us to know until we capture her and manually activate the second strand…"

Alena had had enough of this weird talk. Now was the time for butt kicking. "Whishcast!" she called out, tossing the Premier Ball right towards the grunts' faces. Caught off guard, the two had no time to shout out a counterattack to their Pokémon before Whishcast slammed into the ground with an Earthquake attack. The two Electric-types fell to the ground immediately, while their trainers fell on their rears, hard. Electrinz clung to Alena's leg as she braced herself to the attack. Having trained alongside two Ground-types for two years, she was quite good at withstanding Earthquake attacks. Before the grunts had a chance to send out any more Pokémon, Electrinz hit them with a medium powered Thunderbolt – enough to knock them out, but not enough to be fatal. The two grunts hit the ground with identical looks of surprise on their faces.

"Twig, Sander," Alena said in her normal voice, "come out and help me with this." The two larger members of her team looked at the unconscious grunts, then at Alena, then at the grunts again. Sander sighed.

"_Why does this sort of thing always happen when I'm around you?" _she asked.

Alena took the two Thunders' Poké Balls and returned their Pokémon to their Poké Balls. Twig and Sander grabbed the two grunts by the armpits and dragged them unceremoniously into the large, dark room. Whishcast followed them, giggling, while Electrinz and Alena checked the hall for any other sign of Thunder grunts. When they were sure the coast was clear, the two darted back into the room while Alena shut the heavy doors behind them.

The room was almost completely dark, save the glowing monitor on the opposite wall. Before Alena had a chance to look at it, Sander hit a few buttons with her long claws, hummed with her wings happily, and pulled the plug on the CPU.

"Sander!" Alena hissed.

"_What?" _The Flygon protested. _"There was a big button with "Lock All" written on it! I hit that one!"_

Alena gave the Flygon an odd look. "Are you _sure _you can't hear anything from inside your Poké Ball?" All of the Pokémon gave her their reassurance that the balls were completely sealed from the outside world, just as they always did. "Um, sure," Alena told them. "Kay guys, we've got to bust down all the doors we need to until we get to that underwater room. Whishcast and Sander, you two lead. And, um… can anyone see the other door in here?"

"_Right here_!" Twig called out from a few feet away. His Leaf Blades began to glow in the dark, prompting the others to step back a few feet. The Sceptile slashed through the metal door as though it were butter, and the other members of the team filed out without a backwards glance.

"_This place is like a maze," _Sander said in a gloomy tone of voice. _"All of the hallways look exactly the same, and they're all so dark…"_

"I think that computer was in charge of some of the lights, too," Alena said, pointing to a cluster of hanging lights up ahead. "Those lights are still on, but the other ones have all shut off. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible, or we risk getting trapped in the dark entirely…"

"_I hear someone coming," _Twig hissed suddenly. _"Large… a human male, by the footsteps. Late twenties, early thirties. Good health. Coming from the right. There's a Pokémon with him – a Flying-type. If we hurry this way, we'll escape his notice."_ Without further explanation, Twig dashed through the halls and made a sharp left as the others struggled to keep up with him. The Sceptile lead them through a series of mazelike passages, each of which looked exactly like the last. Just when Alena thought she couldn't possibly run any farther, the Sceptile came to a sudden halt. Alena and Electrinz doubled over, wheezing, Sander settled down to the ground, and Whishcast jumped off a wave of water she had conjured out of nowhere.

"_Here,"_ Twig said without any hint of exhaustion. _"There's water behind this door. This must be that harbor."_

The others glared at him, prompting the Sceptile to blush.

"We'll need scuba gear, or something… unless we get our hands on a submarine or something. But there will probably be Thunder guys everywhere, so be careful." Twig nodded and began to charge up his Leaf Blades. As the Sceptile reached backwards to prepare the attack, a pair of strong, scarred hands grabbed the glowing blades and pulled them down, hard. Twig roared in pain as his arms were yanked out of place, at least one of them probably dislocated somewhere.

"Going somewhere?"

The voice belonged to a man, probably somewhere in his thirties. He was undoubtedly the man Twig was speaking about – a strange grey Pokémon with feathery formation hanging over its face flew by his side. A Flying-type. The man himself wore something resembling the Thunder uniform – a dark blue shirt, a pair of black pants, and a huge navy blue cape, all of which had the familiar insignia printed on them. His feet were bare, allowing Alena and her Pokémon to see the sickly blue streaks running through them.

"Who are you?" Alena demanded. "Where are we, exactly?"

"You are rather demanding for an intruder," the man said in his calm voice. "However, I will entertain your questions. I am Zane. I am the leader here at this base, and there are only two others of higher authority in this organization. You are at Team Thunder's base near Lilycove City, where we perform some of the experiments our organization is known for."

"Experiments…" Alena muttered. "That's what those other guys were going on about. What sort of experiments?" Zane remained silent. Alena looked back at the man's feet, with the strange blue streaks on them. Taking a closer look at him, she realized that the same blue markings spiraled up Zane's neck and arms. "Those markings on you… they're part of those experiments, aren't they?"

Zane smiled, exposing strangely large incisors. "You are sharp!" he said gleefully, almost as though her comments were the most amusing thing he'd heard all day. "If we had talent – real talent – like you on this team, we could be great! We could give you power and fortune…"

"I'll pass," Alena cut him off. "I don't do business with people who perform 'experiments' on people against their will. I heard one of them taking place."

Zane's smile faded. "That is too bad," he told her, the regret in his voice undeniably real. "Yes, some of our experiments are less than willing, but most come to realize exactly what a gift they have been given." The strange man broke eye contact with Alena, giving Sander the courage she needed to go back over to Twig and push his arms back into their proper position. Zane whispered something to the odd Flying-type at his shoulder, causing it to fly down one of the side hallways.

"What are these experiments?" Alena demanded. Zane grinned again.

"Go to our base near Lavaridge. The blueprints should all be there." Zane turned sharply on his heel and faced the direction the Flying-type had gone. "We'll meet again someday, strange girl, and we'll battle then. But for now, I leave you with this." Zane pointed down a corridor to his right. "That way will lead you out if you keep taking it. Good bye, strange girl."

Twig made a motion as if to run after the man, but Sander held him back. _"We'll get him someday, Twig. But we need to get out of here now."_

Alena nodded in agreement. "We'll look through that Lavaridge base when I have a chance to get some backup. I'll patch a call through to Alletto right now and tell him what's been going on. Everyone, down that hallway!"

The group of five walked down the long passage. Sander lead the way, Electrinz and Whishcast stayed on the lookout, and Twig brought up the rear. Alena typed a message to Alletto, occasionally pausing to check and see if the PokéNav had service yet. When the small device pinged to let her know that the message had gone through to Alletto, Alena sighed in relief. Today had been a very, _very _odd day.


	5. Setting Out for the Base

After the craziness of the previous day, Alena found the peace and quiet of Petalsburg City to be exceedingly monotonous. There was nothing for her to do except wait outside Alletto's house (more of a mansion, really) and try to scope out a trainer that could actually put up a fight. This was easier said than done, as most of the people coming out of the nearby towns and cities were new trainers that had just received their first Pokémon. At least at Lilycove, there were always plenty of trainers coming to the region by ship. Here, Alena was reduced to scanning the skies for any sign of an incoming trainer on the back of a Flying-type.

Just as she was about to kick a rock into a nearby pond in order to do something other than stand around, Alena felt something tug on her pants leg. Electrinz looked up at her with his little eyes, doing his best to look innocent as he bit into an apple that he had most likely stolen from someone else's garden.

"What?" Alena snapped. "His Alletto finished whatever he was doing?"

"_No," _Electrinz told her, prompting another frustrated growl. "_However, there is good news. Alletto said that the thingy would be ready in another hour or so-"_

"An hour?" Alena shouted at the Pikachu. "I don't have the time for this! I've already spent the past four hours staring at a bunch of newbies failing epically at Pokémon battling! I've been challenged three times, and every single time, they went down after a single Flamethrower! One of the stupid kids even managed to fall into a pond! What kind of idiot loses his balance like that? It's not like he was on a balance beam – heck, I didn't even push him! He just sort of kneeled over and fell into the water!"

"_Um, Alena? That's not the good news."_

"Oh. Well, go on then!"

"_There's supposed to be another trainer coming over here soon. His name is Garnet, and he's from Rustboro. He's as powerful as you are, and he's another one of Alletto's field technicians. He'll be able to go with you to Team Thunder's base in Lavaridge!"_

"Wait, back up," Alena ordered. "As powerful as me? Why doesn't he try for the championship, if he's so good?"

"_He's a coordinator," _Electrinz explained. _"He competes in contests, mostly. He has a Pikachu too, but no Light Ball. But she's terrifying at contests."_

Alena fingered Whishcast's Poké Ball as if contemplating something. Without another word to the Pikachu, she headed back towards Alletto's house at a brisk pace, not bothering with the rock by her foot. She threw open the French doors, tracked mud through the main entrance, and darted up the stairs to Alletto's main lab.

"Hey!" he cried out almost immediately, shielding the papers on his desk. "Shut the door! Shut the door!" Alena did so, plunging the room into almost complete darkness. On the other side, Electrinz crashed into the shut door.

Alletto sighed in relief and uncovered his papers. The only light source in the room was an ultraviolet light that hung above his desk and cast a creepy purple glow over the white paper. "They can't be exposed to normal light, extremely unstable composition. They must be kept under special lighting at all times or they might combust." The "special lighting" gave his hair an eerie tinge – it was already nearing white in normal lighting, but the UV light made it glow indigo. His glasses reflected the light as well, covering his eyes and giving him an inhuman appearance.

"What are they, exactly?" Alena asked as she gestured towards the papers.

"Blueprints," the boy informed her. "Stuff I found on the League's computers, as well as some things from other places. A few things from Silph, a couple from Devon, a few from old Rocket blueprints…"

"Team Rocket? How'd you get stuff from them?"

"I have connections," Alletto said mysteriously, adjusting his glasses. "But that's beside the point. I'm trying to formulate something using the combined information from these sources."

Before he could explain any farther, the door opened once again, prompting him to cover the documents protectively. Electrinz took the opportunity to dash into the room and sit on Alena's foot. The girl in question would have normally shaken the Pikachu off, but she was more concerned with the person in the hallway. His hair was brown, but there was some sort of weird headband with something remarkably similar to a net attached to it on his head. This headgear gave him the appearance of having white and brown hair at the same time, as the netting even stuck out in little spikes like his normal hair. The rest of his appearance was more standard. Red hoodie, jeans, and tennis shoes.

"Am I late?" he inquired.

"Shut the door! Shut the door!" Alletto yelled in response.

After shutting the door, the new boy took a seat on a nearby crate. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the papers.

"Stuff," Alletto informed him, not wanting to repeat himself again. Before the other two occupants of the room had a chance to introduce themselves properly, Alletto butted in. "This is Alena, this is Garnet. You two are going to go to Lavaridge together and figure out exactly where this base is. Then, you are to find those documents that the man was talking about. Bring them to me and I'll figure out what they are, one way or another."

"Like, right now?" Garnet asked.

"No!" Alletto snapped. "I have to finish this first. As I was saying, I took the blueprints for most of the navigational devices marketed towards trainers nowadays and used them to modify these." He held up a duo of square devices – one blue, one red. It only took a moment for the two trainers to realize what they were.

"Is that my Pokédex?" Alena snapped.

"Hey! Give it here!" Garnet demanded.

Alletto smirked. "They aren't done yet. They'll require quite a bit more tweaking before they're ready for use."

"What's the worst that could happen? Give it here!" Garnet made an attempt to swipe the device from Alletto, but the younger boy simply kicked a switch with his foot, causing a pair of mechanical arms to come down from the ceiling and snatch the Pokédexes. "Hey! What's the big idea?"

"Do you really want to have ever atom in your body forcibly separated and sent via wireless to my computer?"

Garnet was still jumping at the arms.

"Because that can happen right now in their current state."

Garnet pulled over a crate and used the height advantage to grab at his Pokédex. He finally got a hold of it, but the arm stubbornly refused to let go.

"Don't come whining to me if you get stuck as data for the rest of your life."

With the press of a button, the arm let go of the Pokédex, causing both it and Garnet to collapse to the ground. While the boy was still recovering from the fall, Alena leaned in towards Alletto and whispered, "I think I'll wait for mine."

"Ahem!" Alletto coughed, bringing everyone back to attention. "As I was saying, I'll be modifying this device to work on as little energy as possibly while multiplying the memory about seventy times. It should have GPS, a phone, detailed information on all of your party Pokémon, and the ability to break through any security programs below a certain complexity. Therefore, you should be able to get right through Thunder's security system, given that it's not any stronger than the government's system…"

"Wait, did you just suggest that you can hack into the government's computers?" Alena asked. Electrinz nodded absentmindedly in her lap as he chewed on a piece of cheese he had swiped from somewhere.

Before Alletto had a chance to say another word, Garnet butted in with a very important question that required an immediate answer. "Can it sing?" he asked, shaking the Pokédex. "Oh, and can it give me the recipe for my grandmother's rice pudding?"

"It doesn't have the audio capability to sign, and it can only download recipes if they're found in a database of some kind, online, or in a cookbook somewhere!"

These were the two people Alena depended on to help her figure out what was going on with the mysterious Team Thunder.

* * *

"It's so hot here," Garnet complained. "Where I'm from, it's never this hot unless we're in the ocean swimming. Oh yeah, or we're inside with the air conditioner on. But we don't have air conditioning so we can't do that."

For the past four hours, Alena had been forced to put up with the most likely sugar induced ramblings of her new traveling companion. After finishing the Pokédex, Alletto had escorted them off of the property. This, of course, meant that he had chased them to the curb with a broom while shouting something about them going to Lavaridge. It was just Alena's luck that Garnet had no decent Flying-type, and Sander refused to carry the boy and Alena to the volcanic town. The Dragon-type had said something about it being too hard to fly there already with the updrafts and Garnet was too fat and then went back in her Poké Ball, leaving Alena thoroughly confused as to what had just happened.

So far, Garnet had managed to fall into a hole, run into several trees, and nearly end up in a river. Every single time, Alena had had to stop him from committing any farther stupidity. For example, upon falling into a shallow hole, he had the brilliant idea that he could have Vex, his Gardevoir… make a rope. Not lift him out of the hole with Psychic. Find some vines, and make a rope.

"I wonder if that's the volcano," Garnet told no one in particular, pointing ahead to a large peak rising above a forest.

"No, of course not. It's only the _only mountainous structure around." _Alena snapped back sarcastically.

"Well where's the volcano then?" Garnet looked in the direction of Mauville City as though looking for a sign labeled "Volcano!"

"_Is he really going to be of any use?" _Electrinz asked from his position in Alena's backpack.

"I sure hope so. He might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if Alletto says he's powerful…"

"I have an idea!" Garnet suddenly shouted. "Let's Fly to this place! Sosu, goooo!" In a flash of light, a sleepy looking Crobat appeared. Garnet grabbed onto the purple Pokémon and took off without bothering to check up on the other member of the expedition.

"What."

"_He said he didn't have any Flying-types!"_

Normally, Alena would have responded by saying that maybe the boy thought Crobat was Poison and Bug-type or something, but she was simply too dumbfounded by the sheer stupidity of it to put these sarcastic thoughts into words. "Let's just go," Alena muttered, releasing Sander.

"_Where's the fat kid that smells like pizza?" _Sander immediately asked. Electrinz pointed to the purple and red spot disappearing into the distance. _"Oh. Well, better follow him before he ends up in Fallarbor. The winds around here can be vicious."_

"Great," Alena responded, imagining Garnet landing near Meteor Falls and drowning in the waterfall. "So, we have to chase after this moron, get to Lavaridge safely, and reach Team Thunder's base as quickly as possible? Thanks fate. I just love going on idiot patrol." She jumped onto Sander's back, grabbing onto the dragon's antennae as though they were a steering wheel. "After him!"

As Sander took to the skies, a mysterious figure smiled, watching from the safety of a nearby tree's branches. As he followed the Flygon's flight, he observed her rounding up a faraway Crobat and herding it towards Lavaridge Town. So, she would have company…

The mysterious man pulled something out of his pockets – paper, with strange designs and writing on them. Although the ordinary person would be gazing at the arcane designs, Alena would have been focusing on something else.

The man's hands were tinged with blue streaks.


	6. Morphs Uncovered

"Don't. Touch. Anything."

Garnet nodded obediently and sat down in a nearby swivel chair.

"I mean it. Anything in this building could be bugged. Just because it looks tasty or shiny or whatever doesn't mean it's safe. If you try pulling on a lever, you might find yourself in a weird laboratory with robots poking you with needles." Garnet suddenly stiffened. It seemed as though the comment about needles had actually gotten through to him. Excellent.

The laboratory was completely deserted, but the lack of any other people in it somehow made it worse. Every second, Alena found herself expecting some mysterious arm to reach down and grab her, performing terrible experiments on her while Garnet sat somewhere and ate chips. There could be scientists waiting to grab her when she walked past their hiding spot in the hall, or…

She shuddered.

"Garnet? Watch my back, okay? It's dangerous here. Really dangerous."

Something almost like bravery flashed across the boy's face. Well, it was probably easier to be brave when you couldn't comprehend the horrors of the creepy laboratory you were currently wandering around in.

"What do we need to do, then?"

"Like I said, don't touch anything. We're looking for blueprints, blue pieces of paper with white writing on them. There's something important on them that we need to find…"

"What?" Garnet wasn't about to give up, it seemed.

"I don't really know," Alena began.

"Well then what are we-?"

"I'm not finished!" she snapped. "There are supposed to be blueprints to Team Thunder's experiments here. Until we figure out exactly what the experiments entail… well, bad things are going to happen if Team Thunder gets more powerful. The guy who told me that they had their plans here was one of the admins, a powerful member… and he could have easily beat me in battle. I could just sense it. It's a feeling I have, where the hairs on my arms stick up and I feel this chill come over me… they just exert power!"

"Like Tyler Burn? That guy from the Sinnoh region?"

A sour expression crossed Alena's face. "No, not like that idiot. Much stronger. Amazingly strong. But there was something else about him that was really disturbing, but I can't quite put my finger on it…"

"_The blue streaks?" _Electrinz suddenly chimed in from his perch atop a stack of books.

"He had these blue markings all over his body," Alena translated, "and there was something about the way he walked that really creeped me out. He looked like an alien when he walked, sort of like…" A strange look came over Alena's face. "He looked like a Salamence when he walked. And he had those markings on him… they were the same color as that Pokémon."

"A Salamence guy? Wicked!" Garnet jumped out of his seat. "If there are people with the powers of Pokémon… wow! I'd be so strong if I could use Fire attacks!"

Alena glared at him. "This is serious! Not some sort of game! The things that Team Thunder was doing back at their laboratory in Lilycove were straight out of my worst nightmares! Whatever they were doing to those people, it was hurting them. Those people were being subjected to all sorts of terrible experiments simply for the purpose of science. Or maybe evil. Who knows? The only thing I'm sure about is that Team Thunder is going to grow to a fully fledged evil organization soon, and I don't want to be around when that happens… if it hasn't already."

Garnet didn't even seem to acknowledge her speech – he was too busy looking at the buttons on the control panels in the room. He wore a strange look on his face, a mischievous one. "If we don't touch the buttons, then how do we find anything out?" Before Alena or Electrinz could get to the boy to stop him, he slammed his fist down on a large blue and white button directly in front of his seat.

"Garnet!" Alena shrieked, jumping backwards from the monitor. "Why can't you listen?" Garnet simply sat there with a goofy grin on his face as a row of screens all mounted on the room's circular walls roared into life.

"_We need to get out of here!"_ Electrinz shouted, yanking on Alena's sandals.

"Not without Garnet! I'm not leaving anyone alone in this place, least of all him!"

"_Stop being a hero! You need to get away!"_

"Hey!" Garnet shouted gleefully, snapping the two out of their argument. "Blueprints!"

The three enormous screens in the room were all in the process of displaying rows of white text and drawings superimposed on a blue background. As Alena gaped at the enormous blueprints, Garnet began fiddling around with the buttons.

"Stop for a sec," Alena instructed, knowing full well that she was going to be ignored anyway. Before Garnet could exit out of the blueprints by accident, Alena whipped out a USB drive and plugged it into the control panel. There. Now it should download everything it needed without any further instruction. "Okay. Alletto's thing is getting the information, so we should be good…"

"Hey! Look at this…" Garnet's enthusiasm suddenly seemed to drop out of his voice. "This is weird… isn't that thing in the top right corner DNA? But there are two DNAs there…"

Alena looked up from the control panel and immediately wished she hadn't.

The white text listed four letters over and over again, and scrolled through them at such a pace the screen seemed to flash. It was listing the sequence of the four nucleotide bases… maybe even the entire sequence. This screen was the far left screen; the far right one was doing the same thing. The one in the center, however… Alena could see what Garnet was looking at. There were "two DNAs" as he had put it – two double helixes spiraling right next to each other. The screen was divided into five partitions – the top right was the two helixes. The top left was displaying some sort of bar graph with an irregular pattern. The bottom left was showing what appeared to be a heart rate, along with some other feedback most likely used to tell what sort of health a subject was in. The bottom right displayed a picture of a Pokémon – Salamence.

The center was completely blank.

"I'm scared," Garnet whimpered.

"This… this is…"

"_That sequence up there," _Electrinz muttered, pointing to the left hand screen, "_it's Salamence's. If you look at the very top right corner, you can see it listing things like 'scales, teeth, bones.' Alena…"_

"The other one is a human sequence," she gasped. "It's listing things that only people have… giving birth to live babies instead of eggs… what's going on?"

"Salamence people…" Garnet said fearfully. "Look…"

The center of the middle screen was now displaying a picture of Zane. The large size of the screen meant that even that fifth was larger than life, causing the mysterious man to leer out at them.

"We were right…" Alena said, mystified. "He _is _partly a Salamence… why didn't I realize earlier, they walk exactly alike! Stupid! Oh man, he told us to come here, he left this for us to find…"

"He's not blue here," Garnet told Alena, stating the obvious. "So he's not… whatever those things are called yet. But, it came up when I pressed this button… and there's a play button underneath."

"They must have calculated exactly what he would look like over time… oh man, this cannot be happening, this isn't real…"

Garnet hit the 'play' button.

Slowly but surely, the picture of the man began to change. Originally, he had been wearing a pair of black shorts and a blue shirt, but nothing else. This allowed the two trainers and the Pikachu to observe the blue streaks that began creeping along his skin with almost perfect clarity.

"So that's what you mean…" Garnet said in a noticeably terrified voice.

"Scales," Alena muttered, something like curiosity creeping into her voice. "Scales are starting to cover his body."

As the blue streaks continued to spread and thicken, the other two occupants of the room saw exactly what she meant. The blue soon covered all of his body, and a distinct pattern of scales was recognizable. The Zane in the display then started to grow larger, until he must have stood at eight feet tall. Long, sharp claws grew out in place of fingernails, and his teeth became razor sharp.

"Alena! I want to get out of here!" Garnet sobbed. "This is scary! I don't like Pokémon people at all!"

Alena didn't respond, causing Garnet to sob out again. Electrinz looked at her with a disturbed look – she didn't seem affected by the display at all.

By now, a pair of wings and a tail were visible on the man's form. After that, nothing else seemed to change.

"So that's it, huh? It seems perfectly balanced too… around fifty percent human and fifty percent Salamence. God, this is messed up…"

"_Alena!" _Electrinz snapped. _"Will you snap out of it? The USB's stopped flashing, so it must have gotten all of the information! We need to get out of here, this place is practically cursed!"_ With a jolt, Alena realized that the thing she had just witnessed occurring to the image of Zane on the screen must have happened to the people who were being experimented on at the base near Lilycove. But what happened to those people afterwards…

Garnet whimpered and ran over to Alena, clinging to her arm like a terrified Aipom. "Bad things have happened here, it's like a combination between a mad scientist's lab and a haunted house, can we _please_ get out of here before the robot butlers drop down from the ceiling and turn me into a Pokémon person? I'm scared!"

"Calm down, both of you!" she shouted. "The place is deserted, and anything that was going to jump us and turn us into Furret would have done so already. If you keep freaking out though, who knows what'll happen…" her mysterious tone of voice left both of them stunned and thankfully quiet. "Okay, so, we'll go out the way we came in…"

* * *

"So… they've found a way to combine the DNA of humans with the DNA of Pokémon. Interesting. My… contacts at Rocket headquarters told me about something similar a long time ago, but it wasn't as refined as this. This appears to meld the DNA even closer together, making it near impossible to completely reverse, but it also takes a lot longer to finish completely. Team Rocket found a way to do it almost instantaneously, but it was very unstable. A lot of the experiments never accepted the DNA and had to be released…"

"Enough about Rocket! They've gone under in recent times anyway. What can you figure out about Thunder?" Alena's shouting earned her a few odd looks from the other people in the Fallarbor Pokémon Center's video messaging center – not that she noticed, really.

Alletto sighed and rolled his eyes. "Basically, they've made Pokémorphs – combinations of Pokémon and humans – using some weird technology that I can't quite figure out. Whoever came up with the plans for this thing was seriously brilliant. They made a sort of synthetic virus that spreads two sets of DNA – the original and whichever Pokémon they're using – to every cell in the subject's body. Then they somehow send this burst of energy which slowly causes certain parts of each set of DNA to be dominant. It even affects brain activity in such a way that the Pokémorph will keep their human intelligence and memories, while gaining the proper instincts for survival."

"So, why would they be doing this?"

Alletto shrugged. "Who knows. For science, I guess. But there's just this certain feeling that I can't shake off. It's like… I've seen something like this before. Heck, I designed something like this before for the novelty of it! But this particular version of this procedure is just so refined, I get the feeling that whoever made this must be known in the genetics circle somewhere…"

"Got to go," Alena muttered. "It's nearly ten, and I need to get some sleep." Truth be told, she really just needed to get away from the inherent creepiness of the whole ordeal.

"Night," Alletto told her. "I'll call you when I get a better idea of what's going on with this whole thing." The screen went blank. Alena grabbed her bag and threw it over her shoulder, ignoring the strange looks a pair of young trainers were giving her. Just as she was about to head upstairs to her room, a voice rang out through the building and stopped her in her tracks.

"Alena!"

Alena whirled around and came face to face with Jade.


	7. The Contest Begins

"Jade!" Alena called back in astonishment. "What are you doing here?" The other girl merely smiled. Jade looked different from the last time Alena had seen her. In the week or two that the two had been apart, Jade had swapped out her long green dress for something more casual – a red tank and black pants, as well as a pair of black sandals. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and a trainer's bag was slung over her one shoulder. Jade actually looked like a trainer for once.

"What are you doing here?" Alena demanded, still angry about the way Jade had acted before. "You couldn't just end up here by coincidence; have you been following me?"

Jade shot the other girl a nasty look. "That's not a nice way to treat an old friend. For your information, I was going to enter one of the contests here."

"You're no coordinator," Alena growled. "You've come here simply because you want to cheat Garnet out of a ribbon. That's the truth, isn't it?"

Jade sneered. "I thought we were friends, Alena. It's sure a shame that you couldn't continue to be my friend. I guess there's just something wrong with you, so you can't stand to be nice to innocent people."

"Go jump off a cliff."

"Alena!" Garnet's voice rang through the building. "Alletto's got something to tell us!"

She turned away from Jade without a second glance, Electrinz following her lead. Neither of them noticed as she watched them go all the way up the stairs, a strange look coming into her eyes.

* * *

"What is it?" Alena muttered groggily. Currently, she was sitting up in her bed, just about ready to go to sleep. Electrinz was curled up at her feet. "Alletto, I have a contest tomorrow and it's really important. Can't this wait?"

The boy bit his lip. "Well, I guess I could tell you later, but… just give me a few minutes, okay?" Before Alena could protest, he continued. "The energy appears to be the same energy that fuels Pokémon evolution. The waves that initiate the process force the subject's brain to do… something… and that's how the whole thing starts!"

Alena stifled a yawn. "And?"

"Alena…" Alletto said quietly. "The entire process is just like the evolution of Pokémon. When they're about to evolve, they pull out another set of DNA, like the two strands in these Pokémorphs. When they evolve, the exact same thing happens, only one strand becomes completely dominant over the other and the original strand is disassembled."

Alena blinked in confusion. "I don't really get it… can I go to bed now?"

Alletto sighed. "I'll work on it some more and find a better way to explain it. Right now, the best thing I can tell you is that they've somehow reverse-engineered the way that Pokémon evolved in order to create this technology. Alena, whatever, you do, stay away from Team Thunder…"

"Night Alletto." She shut off the computer without any promises.

* * *

"Welcome, people of Fallarbor, to today's Pokémon Super Rank Contest! This will be the Beauty contest! The Cute and Smart contests will take place shortly after the completion of this one!"

"_That MC has a terrible voice,"_ Electrinz commented. _"It doesn't carry well, so he has to use a microphone, and the feedback is driving me insane."_

"What feedback?" Alena asked him as she tied another bow to Whishcast's head. "There's no feedback at all!"

"_Well, maybe not to your tiny, inferior sense of hearing, but to me, it's pure pain. Why do you think I can sense where electronics are? That microphone is screaming at me!"_ To demonstrate his point, the Pikachu howled like a Mightyena, if said Mightyena were set on fire.

Alena ignored him and put the finishing touches on Whishcast's outfit. "That should do it… just don't go splash in any mud puddles, okay?" Whishcast nodded cutely and waddled over towards the stage to see who she was going to be competing against. Electrinz and Alena followed after the tiny Water-type after the latter had packed the tubes of glitter and bows into her backpack.

The competition was looking… um… quick, what's the farthest thing from fierce you can think of? A frightened Skitty? They looked like frightened Skitty. There were ten contestants, and most of them were either little kids, or really creepy adults. The only people who appeared to be above age twelve were Alena, Garnet, two boys, a girl, and… Jade. Only Garnet actually looked confident – Jade had her usual icy stare, but it appeared to be hiding her actual fear. Alena walked over and joined the group of coordinators just in time for the curtain to rise and the first contestants to go out into the stadium.

The way the contest hall was built, there were four main parts. The first was the dressing rooms. The second was the stage that all of the competitors showed their initial attacks on. The third was a huge stadium, where they would try to knock off the opponents' points. Finally, there were the stands, where the spectators could observe the chaos taking place below. Right now, contestants were filing down to the stage and performing their attacks, before moving down to the stadium.

The first few contestants went, all of them very young, around eight or nine. An Azurill used Bubble, a Taillow used Agility, and a Minun used Spark. Most of the contest continued in the same way, with the majority of the contestants performing uninspired attacks and never using combos. Some of the Pokémon didn't even attack – one lady had a Pichu which stood there and looked cute, as though that would make any difference to its score.

Just when Alena thought she was going to go crazy from the sheer amount of failure, one of the older boys took the stage. His Swellow dashed around the room using Agility, while the clouds parted over the stadium. Swellow flew out to the open skies and began flapping its wings. Without warning, a huge blast of heated air arched out of the Flying-type's wings.

"Heat Wave," Garnet muttered from Alena's side. "That's one you don't get to see much."

The rest of the contestants did surprisingly well – even the younger kids were making an effort to try combination attacks. A Clefairy used Moonlight and swiftly followed into Meteor Mash while she was still glowing. A Bibarel zoomed around using Rollout, shooting Thunderbolts at the same time. Some kid's Raticate used Crunch, Hyper Fang, Super Fang, every biting attack it could muster.

Jade sent out Airlia. At first, Alena felt a pang of fear. The Dragon-type was exceedingly pretty and powerful too. Then Jade made her appeal. Airlia used Mist and covered the stage in a white fog. Then, hidden by the fog, she started to Sing… but within seconds, the notes turned sour.

"Perish Song… urgh," Garnet growled. "Buttercup, return." For the first time, Alena noticed the Pikachu sitting by his feet. She followed his lead and recalled Whishcast and Electrinz for a moment so the Pokémon wouldn't be affected by the terrible sound.

When Jade walked down to the Stadium, half of the Pokémon waiting to go on stage suddenly collapsed. Perish Song had taken its toll.

"She can't do that!" Alena hissed.

"She's the daughter of a Gym Leader… I actually think she can. It's not specified in the rules whether or not taking out the rest of the competition with one of the attacks during the appeal round is allowed. Against the daughter of someone so influential, they wouldn't even bother looking it up to see if that's true.

"She's terrible," Alena muttered, releasing Whishcast but keeping Electrinz in his Poké Ball. "She cheats through things worse the most people I know. Heck, I've cheated before, but never like she does. The reason she hates Tyler Burn so much? He cheats more that she does. The only reason why she doesn't get in trouble as much as he does is because people think she's so innocent…"

"Don't be so harsh on her," Garnet said in a strangely intelligent way. "You traveled with her for a long time, and you aren't an idiot. There had to be something nice about her in order for you to do that. Maybe something's happened to her now – maybe she's sick."

Before Alena had a chance to respond to him, it was her turn to appeal.

Contests were a two-edged sword for Alena. On one hand, they had the potential to be much more fun than battling, given that you found a strategy that worked well against your opponents. You were able to figure out new techniques for battling, and sometimes you found out about a new kind of Pokémon that you could train. Then there was the ability to get prizes – ribbons mostly, but you would occasionally get something more useful at the higher ranks.

Then there was the audience.

The judges weren't bad. There was a bald guy with a funny hat, a girl with blue hair, and a guy with purple hair. None of them looked particularly interesting, but none of them looked mean either. The audience, however, was full of a wide variety of people. Due to some rule of how the universe worked, however, only twenty percent of the audience members would be nice, kind, well-behaved people. The other eighty percent would be the ones doing the following.

One. Jumping out of their seats and screaming, occasionally changing things up a bit by pointing at a random contestant's Pokémon and demanding that it was theirs. Surprisingly, not all of the people doing this were under the age of five.

Two. Throwing their food at whatever was in reach. Some of them would throw it at other spectators. Some of them would throw it at empty seats. A few of them were even close enough to throw it into the field and at the competing Pokémon.

Three. Waving around banners and being way too enthusiastic about their child's performance. They seemed to think that their colorful banners would somehow save their kid from the fact that their Pokémon was a complete sloth and refused to attack.

Four. People talking on cell phones, PokéGear, anything with a phone feature. They obviously weren't watching the performance, so why were they there? Oh, right. Free admission. Great.

Five. Having a Pokémon battle in the middle of the isleway. Really. Just really.

Six. Sleeping in the stands. Why did admission have to be free?

Seven. Making rude comments to the contestants about their Pokémon. Apparently using Shroomish, Pichu, or Zigzagoon meant that you were a complete idiot and didn't deserve to have a trainer's license. Alena even recognized one of them. He was the guy who was purposely beating the shit out of Electrinz just because he was an immature moron who didn't like Pikachu. Great. She made a mental note to soak him with the most powerful Surf Whishcast could muster.

Eight. People were actually trying to sabotage the competition. Some of them were banging pots and pans together, causing some Pokémon to grab their ears in pain. Others were doing more complex things, such as one group who had a giant electromagnet in place, waiting to direct Electric attacks off course. There was even one group who had the brilliant idea of lighting small fires all around the stands to mess with the air in the stadium and throw off the Flying-types. Alena couldn't' wait until she got to Lilycove's contests, where things were way more controlled.

So, in a nutshell, Alena hated most of these people and didn't want them to see the attacks she and Whishcast had been working on because they wouldn't appreciate the work put into them anyway.

The judges, at least, would.

"Start off with Ice Beam!" she instructed, her heart racing. This was a new technique that they hadn't had much time to work with yet. Frantically ignoring the expressions on the judges' faces, she continued. "Shape it into the shape I told you with Zen Headbutt!" Whishcast formed a huge mound of ice on the middle of the stage and began to shape it with her head. Fearing that they were nearly out of time, Alena told Whishcast the final set of attacks. "Surround it with Surf! Get to the top!"

Whishcast sped up to the icy peak with the help of a jet of water. When the water had fallen to the ground, the catfish Pokémon was on top of a giant statue of herself. The crowd clapped quietly, and Whishcast slammed through the sculpture with Earthquake to break it.

A few more weak appeals, and then it was Garnet's turn. Buttercup was greeted by loud shouts from the Pikachu Hater and his friends. Garnet and Buttercup ignored them as they began their appeal.

Garnet didn't even say a word to the Pikachu – he just held up three fingers and she knew exactly what to do. She rocketed forward with Agility, sending out Discharge at the same time. The sparks flew around the stage prettily, but it was nothing special. Then she used to her momentum to fly straight up and use a rotating Iron Tail. More impressive, as she had quite a bit of height, but still nothing great. Finally, she… kept rotating, but never fell to the ground. At first, Alena thought that Garnet must have taught her the old "Iron Tail helicopter blade" but when she looked closely, that wasn't the case. Buttercup was rotating quickly in midair, with sparks still flying from her body.

"Magnetism," Alena suddenly realized. "She's floating above the metal stage…"

When she pulled out of the attack, Buttercup and Garnet were met with thunderous applause.


	8. Contest Melee

"_Well, there's no way that we're beating that. Why didn't you think of that? I could have pulled it off before them and they would have had to think of another appeal!"_ Electrinz stomped his tiny foot on the ground in frustration.

"It wouldn't have mattered!" Alena snapped. "He's got at least two more appeals lined up, and probably more than that!"

Before another argument could break out between the two, Garnet and Buttercup bounded off the stage, signaling the end of the first round. As the rest of the competitors got into position, Alena and Electrinz followed Whishcast over to her spot near the edge of the stadium. Electrinz hopped into the stands, still giving Alena a grumpy look.

"Oh, suck it up. Garnet beat us in appeals, so we'll just beat him at battling." Electrinz still looked sour, but part of his bitterness seemed to have been converted into fuel for kicking Garnet's butt if the need arose. "No jumping into the stadium now, we'll be disqualified," Alena added right before the light signaling the start of the second round clicked into life.

The second that light turned green, most of the competing Pokémon charged each other, hitting the others with every attack they could muster. Only a select few stayed out of harm's way – Garnet instructed Buttercup to set up a Light Screen, while Airlia hid behind a combination of Mist and Safeguard. Whishcast looked at the others threateningly, as though waiting for the right chance to jump in herself.

"Wait, Whish. Light Screen halves Special damage, but it doesn't block Physical damage. If you use Earthquake, Buttercup will still take a lot of damage." The catfish Pokémon nodded and waddled out a few feet before Digging into the ground. "Whish? What are you doing? I never really had a change to go over attacking from below with you before – hey! Don't use Earthquake from down there; you'll risk damaging the building's foundation! Whish!"

Before Alena had a chance to scold the Pokémon any farther, a huge torrent of water shot out of the ground, smack dab in the middle of the stadium. This happened to be where most of the Pokémon were fighting. The water flooded the battleground quickly, until there was a six foot deep pool in the building. Mass chaos broke out as around half of the participating Pokémon struggled in the water before being recalled by their very wet trainers. The trainers themselves appeared to be just fine, as they were clinging to the walls of the stadium for dear life. As the remainder of the Pokémon either swam or flew, a tiny blue shape surfaced near Alena.

"You tapped into an underground supply for your attack, didn't you?" Whishcast simply cooed cutely and swam back towards the chaos. "Won't attack Buttercup directly…" Alena sighed. "Well… hey! Whishcast! Ice Beam!"

The Water-type must have heard her trainer, as she jumped out of the water and blasted an Ice Beam below her. The resulting icefloe sent more than a few Pokémon jumping into the stands to escape the cold. The number of competing Pokémon had just been decimated by the actions of a single, baby Pokémon. Airlia, a Swellow, and a Taillow fluttered in the air. A Bibarel and Raticate shivered in the cold water, swimming in the direction of Whish's icefloe. And at the far end of the stadium… Buttercup was Surfing across the water, using her Light Screen like a surfboard. The Pichu from before clung to her head protectively.

After muttering some choice words, Alena took a deep breath and dunked her head under the water. The water was almost certainly from an underground source after all, because it stung Alena's eyes far more than Whish's own water would have. Well, that and the fact that the stadium was so filthy…

Sure enough, as the young trainer's eyes adjusted to the murky water, she could see more Pokémon swimming underneath the icefloe, no doubt trying to ram into it from below. Let's see… a Sealeo, a Sharpedo, and a Milotic. Milotic? Hmmm. Didn't see that one before…

"Whishcast!" Alena shouted using the air she had been holding in. "Earthquake, straight down!" After that, she collapsed on the arena's wall, gasping for breath while Electrinz swatted her back in an attempt to be useful.

"_Come on Alena! You can't drown, oh no, oh no, oh-!"_

"I'm not drowning," she told the Pikachu in annoyment. "I stayed under for too long and my head was spinning." Electrinz didn't appear to hear any of this – he just knew that Alena was talking and that meant that she wasn't unconscious. By the time she managed to get out of the Pikachu's headlock, the tide of battle had, um…

Whishcast had slammed right through the icefloe, hit the Milotic on the head, and continued to go straight down through another sheet of ice – this time, one that she had apparently placed herself in order to keep the stadium flooded. All of the water drained out of the stadium in one huge whirlpool. Most of the Water-types were using all of their energy to get away from the vortex. The Raticate had swum to the stadium floor and was anchoring himself using his fangs, while the Taillow and Swellow were currently frozen in huge blocks of ice. Whishcast had a better idea than most, and created a solid block of ice leading straight down to the bottom of the stadium.

Within moments, only Whishcast, Airlia, and Buttercup were left. The Pokémon that had been swimming were lying on the ground exhausted, and the other two Flying-types had yet to thaw out. The Pichu from before had been recalled the second the vortex hit. Buttercup waited on the wet ground, Airlia wheeled around the sky, and Whishcast clung to her enormous ice cube.

Airlia's beak still had frost clinging to it.

Garnet and Alena looked at each other at the exact same time Whishcast and Buttercup did. Slowly, all four of them nodded.

"Thunderwave!"

"Spark!"

The two Electric attacks rocketed towards the Dragon-type. Airlia swirled around the airborne Whishcast's attack, but was too preoccupied to get out of the way of Buttercup's shockwave. She plummeted out of the air, leaving the two others the perfect chance to attack.

"Thunderbolt!"

"Ice Beam!"

The resulting attack sent Airlia flying to the other end of the stadium. She twitched weakly in an attempt to get back to her feet, but the effects of Paralysis kicked in and set her tumbling to the ground.

Only Buttercup and Whishcast were left…

"Earthquake!" Alena ordered.

Whishcast didn't move.

"_She won't attack a friend…"_ Electrinz sighed. _"This is going to cause problems down the road."_

"She hit Airlia!" Alena protested, knowing it was a moot point.

Buttercup and Whishcast stared at each other in the very center of the field. Jade had not yet accepted the fact that Airlia was down for the count, and the Dragon-type flailed weakly at the opposite end of the stadium. Other than that, the stadium was completely clear. The water was gone, the ice cube had melted quickly, and even the ground was nearly dry with the help of the enormous lights beaming down on the competitors.

Garnet stared at Alena. There was something in his eyes, something that she had only seen in the strongest competitors she had ever battled against. Garnet may not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was certainly brilliant when it came to contests. He was making things up off the top of his head faster than Alena ever could, and the way Garnet seemed to understand his every thought made it seem almost like he could speak to Pokémon as well. But that couldn't be possible… he never had conversations with them like Alena herself did.

Both of them knew very well that there was only one way to end this. One of them would win, and one of them would lose. The only question was who that person would be. Neither of them wanted to attack the other, but if they didn't attack, the match would most likely go to Jade…

Alena stared at Garnet. He stared back. What to do, what to do, what to

"Grass Knot!"

Garnet broke out of the staring match so quickly, Alena had no time to respond. Buttercup somehow made a sprawling plant grow out of the ground and ensnare Whishcast in its leafy vines. Alena shrieked as her Pokémon struggled to escape from the powerful attack. Within seconds, Whishcast had stopped struggling, exhausted.

"The winner of this match goes to Garnet Justice!"

All angry thoughts towards Garnet faded away the second she heard his last name. That… was… well, worse than… um… _certain people's_ last names. Not that Alena had a funny name at all. Nope! Not at all! Hey, look, Garnet was getting a ribbon!

The red-clothed boy accepted the ribbon gratefully and pinned it to a ribbon tied around Buttercup's neck. The duo posed on stage while the other competitors and audience members filed out of the room. Eventually, the only ones left were Garnet, Jade, Alena, and the Pikachu hater and his posse. Garnet recalled Buttercup to her Poké Ball for rest, and Alena did the same for Whish, preferring using the Premier Ball's beam instead of trying to dig her out of the thorny vines.

"_Not bad, not bad at all," _Electrinz said, obviously impressed. The fact that a fellow Pikachu had won seemed to make him forget that Whishcast had just been mercilessly pwned by her friend.

"Yeah, well, we need to head out. Go to Petalsburg to see if Alletto has more crap he wants to put on my Pokédex, and then… you know…"

"_Thunder. Gotcha. I won't say anything to the others if you don't."_

"You don't even speak human!" Alena protested. Before she could get in another word, Garnet pranced towards them, happily holding on to Buttercup's Poké Ball.

"Hey guys! What are you doing later?"

Sometimes Alena swore the boy was also a psychic, in addition to being a supergenius and being able to talk to Pokémon. He just hid behind his chubby, dense, pizza-smelling exterior.

"Nothing really. We were trying to fill up the Pokédex before, so we'll probably do that again." Electrinz breathed a sigh of relief from his perch on the wall behind her.

"Oh, okay. We were going to travel together, so if you wanted to join, that'd be all right."

Electrinz and Alena shared a glance. 'We?' Who was Garnet talking about?

The answer revealed itself in the least flattering way possible.

"Over here, Garnet dearest!" Jade crooned from the stadium exit. "We must get going if we're going to reach Meteor Falls by sundown!" The girl had changed back into another one of her dresses for the competition – a green one with a silver sash – and somewhere between the end of the contest and the current time, she had donned a pair of elbow length white gloves and black leather boots. Alena's absolute disgust was magnified tenfold by the sway Garnet was blushing as the girl in green blew kisses at him.

"We need to go to the Safari Zone again!" Alena blurted out. She grabbed Electrinz and dashed into the stands, desperate to get away from Jade. Why would Garnet go with her? …well, actually, Alena would _really _rather not think about that. She just needed to get away from Jade, any other people she could deal with, but…

Just as she was about to reach the exit, a huge metal body slammed down in front of her. It was Pikachu Hater's Metagross.

"Dammit," she muttered, keeping a hand on Sander's Poké Ball. Before she had a chance to do anything though, another Pokémon slammed into her side. A Zangoose… Everyone else had left the stadium, Garnet was lured away by Jade, the judges were in their break room. It was just Alena and Electrinz vs. Pikachu Hater and his group. They all had Pokémon of their own, too – Weavile, Rhyperior, Electrode, Kadabra… was that a Dragonair?

"Well well, if it isn't little Miss Cheater and her stupid Pokémon. How've you been doing? Cheating more in this contest? Or did you have your little friend cheat for you?" He wore the same evil grin as his Metagross, as usual, but this time all of his friends and their Pokémon were leering at Alena as well.

Alena struggled to get to her feet, but before she could move, Kadabra lifted her up using Psychic. She suddenly realized that it was the same Kadabra from the Pokémon League that had beaten Electrinz into submission. Electrinz floated next to her, struggling against the attack in an attempt to use Thunderbolt.

"Not so powerful now, are they?" one of Pikachu Hater's friends taunted.

"Let's see them cheat their way out of this one! Kadabra, just like I taught you!"

Kadabra's eyes glowed red and the rest of the room appeared to be plunged into darkness…


	9. Sparks Appears

Alena had never been afraid of the dark. Sure, things could hide in the dark, but as long as you kept your wits about you and used other senses rather than just sight, there was almost zero chance of you being ambushed. Alena had often gone into the forest at night as a little kid in order to watch the nocturnal Pokémon go about their business, and not once had she ever been attacked by one of them.

Right now, she was scared.

It wasn't that the place around her was dark – it was that there were no sensations at all. She couldn't feel anything, smell anything, or taste anything. It wasn't like being in your own house and being used to your own smell – there was quite literally no smell at all, and it was a shocking experience. Alena couldn't even feel her own body; it was as though she were a ghost…

_Alena…_

There was a voice in the nothingness – well, not actually a voice. It didn't make a sound. It was more of a thought.

_Electrinz?_ she thought back.

_Where are you?_

_I don't know… I'm just floating…_

_Join the club. I don't like this…_

Suddenly, in the darkness, there was a flicker of light. _Hey! Do you think Kadabra is weakening or something? _Electrinz asked.

_Hmmm? Maybe. I hope someone's come and broken his concentration._

Before Electrinz could get in another word, the world exploded into color, sound, smells. The sudden ambush was intensified a thousand times by the fact that a fight seemed to be taking place. A blur of color that could have been a Pokémon shot by, followed by a terribly bright light. As her eyes and ears adjusted to finally sensing things again, Alena knew that something was wrong. The feelings were there, but they weren't the right ones. Life just felt… different than what it was supposed to feel like.

Alena slowly realized parts of what was wrong. First of all – everything was too big. The chair next to her was nearly the size of a house! The Pokémon jumping around her were giant! A Weavile was twice as tall as her, and a Dragonair was the size of a skyscraper. When they hit the ground, Alena felt as though an earthquake (or maybe an Earthquake) was tearing through the ground. On top of the huge size, everything was a weird shade of blue. Yellow seemed to stick out more so than any other color. She could smell the Pokémon around her, and pick up on exactly what kind they were from scent alone. She could hear their heartbeat, and…

She could hear some sort of constant buzz, broken up here and there by the screeching of something that sounded exactly like exceedingly loud feedback from a microphone.

"_Shit," _she groaned, struggling to her feet. _"What's happening…"_

"Alena! Hold on, it's okay!" The voice was strangely familiar. It sounded as though it had been run through a carwash – strained, exhausted, and more than a little confused. It wasn't until Alena felt a giant pair of hands grab her and lift her up gently before it hit her.

_That was her own voice._

"_Electrinz…"_ she gasped out. _"What's going on…"_

"It's okay, you're safe. Mr. Sparks chased them away." Alena felt the hands gently cradle her against something warm and soft. Without hesitation, Alena clung to the fabric, still whimpering.

"That Kadabra must have pulled your minds out of your body." The speaker was a new one. Alena squirmed in the protective arms in an attempt to get a look at the other person. In the process, she got a very good look at her arms. They were short, stubby, and covered in yellow fur. When she waved her hands, the tiny little paws moved too.

"_This is weird," _she muttered to herself before continuing to look for the other person.

It was a man – an _exceedingly_ short man, but to Alena stuck in Electrinz's body, he was a giant. He was in a blue sweat outfit and had extremely yellow hair that hung around his face. He had very timid looking grey eyes, but his hands were balled up into fists. "Are you okay?" he asked Alena directly. "I know this must be a shock to you…"

Alena did her best to smile and sat up straight in Electrinz's arms. _"What was that?"_

"That Kadabra's attack," the man told her. He could obviously understand her… but if Trinz was speaking Human, then she was speaking Pikachu! The man could talk to Pokémon like she could?

"What exactly was that attack? You already said it pulled our minds out of our bodies, but how would that work?" Electrinz inquired.

"Well," the man began timidly, "it grabbed hold of your minds and pulled them out of your bodies. I don't know what it was planning to do to them, but it could have been bad. When Plusle attacked it, it lost its grip and your minds returned to the nearest vessel… but, unfortunately, your minds went back to the wrong bodies…"

Alena shuddered, prompting Electrinz to hold her protectively to his body. _"How are we supposed to get back to normal? We'd need the help of a Psychic Pokémon or something, but my Gardevoir isn't strong enough to do it…"_

"My Espeon could get you back to normal…" the man offered. "But, you'd need some rest before doing it again. The results could be extremely bad if you tried doing it right now."

"Like what?" Electrinz demanded impatiently.

"You could have your minds fused together into one conscience spread between two bodies."

"Okaaaay, guess we're waiting." Electrinz took a seat in one of the chairs, taking extra care to make sure Alena was set down in his lap gently. "So, what are we supposed to do until then?"

"Stay somewhere private, where no one can see you. Meet me here in three hours, and I'll have Espeon. I'll take you somewhere where you two can be changed back." The man darted out the door before the others could get another word in.

"_So, what _should_ we do?"_

* * *

Alena sighed happily as Electrinz passed her another block of cheese. "_It does taste wonderful!"_ she sighed happily.

"I told you so!" Electrinz chirped, munching on a pretzel. "But you'd better give me my body back soon, because it's not as tasty in yours."

Alena didn't respond, as she was too busy scarfing down a hunch of cheese the size of her head to answer.

The two were outside in a park of sorts – well, if you could call it that. The only plants were stubby little trees and a few patches of grass. The ground was coated in a layer of volcanic ash, and the most interesting part of the landscape was a rock that looked a bit like a Psyduck.

"_How much time has passed?" _Alena asked. She already missed her watch.

"Ten minutes."

The duo simultaneously slumped down on the park bench, sighing. Who would have thought having your mind swapped with your favorite Pokémon would be so boring? What fun was being able to shoot electricity out of your face if you couldn't even fight?

Alena's eyes lit up.

"_Electrinz! Try having me use attacks! I've always wondered what it felt like!"_

Electrinz gave her a funny look. "Really?"

"_Yeah! How do I shot electric?" _Alena looked very excited and very hyperactive.

"Erm… you might want to start out with Quick Attack. You don't want to try any attacks that are out of your league. Concentrate on going fast, starting off in a straight line." Alena nodded and did as Electrinz told her. For a while, she didn't really feel anything. She was just running back and forth in a straight line. On about the eight time, she felt something click. A part of her mind suddenly kicked into overdrive, and she felt herself rocket forward. On either side of her, the world was a blur. In front of her, dark shapes would pop up, but she would dodge around them like it was some sort of game. When she finally came to a halt, she wasn't out of breath at all – it felt like she had just been jogging for a minute or too.

"Well, that's pretty impressive," Electrinz commented as he ran after his trainer. "I thought it would take you a little while longer to figure that out… hey!"

The second she had pulled out of Quick Attack, Alena refocused the part of her brain that had started the Quick Attack before. She focused on making her tail stronger and whipped it around her body. Sure enough, it began to shine in a metallic way, and when she slashed at a nearby rock, her glowing tail went right through it.

"How do you know how to do that already?" Electrinz asked in fascination. "You're a human, this shouldn't come so easily to you!"

Alena pulled out of the attack and positively beamed at Electrinz. _"I don't know why, but it's really easy! Maybe it's because you're such a high level!"_

"Well, it's either that, or you were once a Pokémon yourself in a past life. Eh, either way, doesn't matter. Lunch?"

"_Cheese?"_

Electrinz sighed. "Okay."

* * *

"Okay, so you'll stand here, and you'll sit here…" The short man from before instructed the duo on where they were supposed to sit while his Espeon meditated on a nearby table. Alena wasn't too keen on going back to that place where she didn't have her body, but it was preferable to being stuck in Electrinz's body forever.

"_Are you sure we'll be okay?"_ she asked Electrinz.

"We'll be just fine. I won't let anything hurt you." Electrinz scratched behind her ear affectionately. Alena found herself blushing in spite of herself.

"Okay, you two. Just relax and try not to focus too hard on anything. Espeon, now!" The man took a step back and allowed his Pokémon to take over.

Alena tried to keep her mind clear, but it was hard not thinking about Electrinz. He was so gentle and so nice to her, even though she could be so harsh on him. Well, she was pretty argumentative with most everyone, but Electrinz never looked down on her for it.

They were in the darkness again.

It was nice, having him be big enough to give her a hug. She could even remember the feeling of the hug, even in the senseless darkness. It would be nice if they were the same size and could have hugs…

The explosion of sensations came again, but this time Alena was prepared for it. She clung to her happy feelings and refused to let the things around her bother her. When the light cleared, she found herself on the floor, when she had been on the bed before – and the room was much smaller. The man in front of her looked much smaller than before, even shorter than Alena herself. Just to make sure, she looked down at her fingers. Yep, she was back to being herself again.

Alena sighed in relief and leaned back against the bed, exhausted. It took a few moments for her to realize that the other three people in the room hadn't said a thing yet. Her eyes popped back open. Espeon, Electrinz, and the strange man were all staring at her in shock.

"_Alena! Are you all right?" _Electrinz gasped.

"Why? What happened?"

"You were glowing," the man informed her. "It appeared for a second as though you were evolving like a Pokémon."

"What?"

Espeon purred and licked a paw. _You were thinking of him, weren't you?_ Alena jumped a few inches into the air in shock. None of the others seemed to have heard anything, so Espeon must be talking to her psychically. _Your Pikachu… you really care about him, and he cares about you. You were thinking so fondly of him, you almost managed to evolve. Most impressive for a human._

"What do you mean I almost evolved?" Alena snapped at Espeon. She gave no further input.

"Oh, Espeon was talking to you!" the man realized. "Sorry, she can be quite cryptic. But, yes, to answer your question, you did appear to be evolving like a Pokémon. It may sound impossible, but it's happened before."

Alena put up her hand before the man could go any farther. She did not want to hear any more weirdness after what had just happened to her. In the past week or so, weirdness seemed to cling to her like glue.

The man merely chuckled. "My name's Daniel Sparks. I've been traveling around Hoenn for a year or so now, searching for a special Pokémon for a friend."

"_What kind of Pokémon?" _Electrinz questioned.

Sparks smiled. "Zapdos, a legendary bird who can control lightning. My friend and I both love Electric-types, so I wanted to capture it for her."

Electrinz frowned. _"Do you know Team Thunder?"_ The words were out of his mouth before Alena could clamp a hand over his mouth.

"No, I've never heard of them," Sparks told them in an honest tone of voice. "Who are they?"

"Enemies…" Alena muttered. "I guess. They tried getting us to join, but they were doing terrible experiments on people… they were lead by some guy named Zane."

Sparks frowned. "Zane…"

"Does that name mean anything to you?"

"I'm sorry, but no, not really. I knew a boy named Zane when I was a child, but I haven't seen him since. It probably wasn't the same person anyway."

"Well, if you ever see these weirdoes in black and yellow outfits, don't let them trick you. They're up to no good!"

Sparks smiled brightly. "Will do! I'll be heading to Sinnoh soon, so if you head that way, keep an eye out for me!"

"Sure thing," Alena promised. "See you some other time!"

"_Bye! Don't forget about us!"_ Electrinz chirped. He hopped onto Alena's head as the two of them exited the Pokémon Center's hotel room.

As soon as they were gone, Spark collapsed on the bed, sighing deeply. Espeon chuckled from her perch.

_Oh, you will meet her again… but not in the way that she expects._

The man closed his eyes and gritted his teeth in frustration as he flopped down on the bed helplessly.


	10. Annoying Prophetic Dreams

Alena went to bed the next day with a pounding headache, a runny nose, and a sore throat. She had not had a good day, and not just because of her cold. She woke up this morning in Fallarbor, traveled all the way to Verdanturf, let Sander rest for a half hour or so, and then promptly let her curiosity get the better of her.

"Sander! Let's go to Mauville and talk to Wattson! If anyone knows something about Electric-type Pokémon, it's him. Maybe he'll know something about Team Thunder!

Sander groaned and flapped her wings a few times to stretch out. She hated being Alena's ferrying service, but at the same time, she wouldn't want the job to be taken by some other dumb Pokémon. Whenever the going got rough, she'd simply think of Alena riding some stupid Pidgeot or Skarmory and her anger would fade away.

The trip itself was mostly uneventful, except for Sander taking the most direct route – right through a thunderstorm. While Alena clung to the Ground-type's back, Sander hummed cheerfully, blissfully unaware of the terror she was bringing to her trainer. After about twenty minutes of this, the duo finally got away from the storm and landed safely in front of the Pokémon Center shortly after.

"Never again," Alena coughed. She sneezed into her sleeve a few times before grabbing the rest of her Poké Balls off of her belt. As soon as her other three Pokémon got a good look at her, they all looked worried.

"_Are you okay?" _Twig was the first to ask.

"Fine," Alena told him even though she was wet, had a very runny nose, and generally looked as though she were going to fall over. "We all need to head over to the Gym in order to see Wattson and ask him about Team Thunder."

Her Pokémon all nodded. Even the ones who had been in their Balls looked as though they had heard it all before. Alena really wondered about them sometimes.

"_Then what?"_ Electrinz asked.

"We go to Lilycove and get ready to go to the Safari Zone, obviously. That's one of the few places I have yet to check all the way through to see if I can find more Pokémon." All four Pokémon nodded and followed her to the Gym.

The Gym happened to be the next building over.

It was a pretty plain building, like most Gyms. It was rectangular in shape, being longer than it was wide. The walls were a combination of red metal and glass, while a sign emblazoned with a thunderbolt hung over the door. The Gym had a tiny garden out in the front – a small square surrounded by hedges in the shape of Magnemite and orbs that were probably supposed to be Voltorb. In the very center of the little garden, a huge, black stone fountain carved into the likeness of Zapdos and Raikou spat up water.

Inside, the Gym had a bunch of enormous yellow pillars topped with metal spheres. Normally, electricity would be running through the pillars, but apparently no new challengers had arrived recently. Alena flashed her trainer card through a slot towards the front of the Gym, letting it know that she had beaten this Gym before. After confirming that she had already beaten the Leader and therefore did not need to go through the puzzle again, the machine beeped to let her know that it was okay for her to go through.

At the end of the Gym, an older man slept in a large chair. An Electrike snored in his lap. Neither of them showed any sign of waking up.

"_Great…"_ Electrinz said. _"Now what?"_

"_Can I use my Flamethrower?" _Sander offered helpfully.

"Don't even think about it!" Alena shouted. Not even her exclamation caused the Gym Leader and his Pokémon to wake up. She was beginning to wonder if the two of them had been drugged.

"_I think the two of them are going to stay like that for a while,"_ Twig said calmly. _"I can sense how deep both of them are in sleep, and it looks like we could be waiting for a few hours."_

Alena growled, then sneezed halfway through. It seemed as though she were getting a cold. "I don't want to stay that long! Just being in here is making me feel worse too; I think the electricity is causing me to be sick or something, it did start in the middle of the storm."

Sander looked a bit sorry, but not too much. She was amazed by just how wimpy humans were. Twig, on the other hand, looked worried. "_I think you should get some sleep,"_ the Sceptile advised. _"If you don't change your clothes soon, you'll get worse."_

Alena sighed. It was only two PM, but she felt like it was closer to nine. She didn't want to rest; she wanted to get going to the Safari Zone. At the same time, she knew that if she did that, she would only feel worse.

"_I think you're right about the storm, too," _Electrinz added. _"I can sense your charge being different from usual, and I know how picky humans are about that."_ Sander shot him a nasty look, which he didn't seem to see.

"_Sleep!" _Whishcast shouted, giving her input to the conversation.

"Fine," Alena gave in. "I'll go to bed right now, but we're leaving super early tomorrow!" Her Pokémon cheered. Alena was very impatient, but also did not like waking up early in the morning. They knew that if she went to bed this early, she'd still wake up late enough for them to get enough sleep as well.

Alena muttered all the way across the street to the Pokémon Center, while her Pokémon grinned happily.

* * *

There were many things in the world that Alena hated, and she wasn't afraid to admit it. She hated obnoxious people, which included most people her age. She hated arrogant people. She hated Rhyperior. She hated it when the weatherman told you to expect rain, and then it was sunny. She hated children's shows that talked down to kids.

Finally, she hated it when she had really weird dreams.

The dream she was currently having wasn't exactly a nightmare, but it was very strange. In the unconscious part of her mind, Alena didn't really understand where she was, but she certainly recognized the insignia printed on various surfaces in the room: an orange T superimposed on a green thunderbolt. She recognized the room as some sort of laboratory, even though it wasn't one of the labs from the bases near Lilycove or Lavaridge. There were a bunch of steel tables, some metal sinks, and a large hanging green light. The walls were green colored and the floor was cream. On a countertop next to the sinks, a few vials full of fluid stood. The fluid was varying shades of yellow, opaque, and, as Alena knew just because it was a dream, cold to the touch.

There were a large group of people in the room as well. Six of them were Team Thunder grunts, recognizable by their uniforms. There was one person dressed in a different outfit – same black pants, but with a green shirt and an orange vest. She could make out his clothing and his hair – yellow, and stuck up into mad spikes that must have taken more hair gel than the average person used in a month – but his face was hidden, as though the dream didn't want her to see it.

There were three other people in the room, people that Alena recognized right away. It was Pikachu Hater, along with his two friends. They were currently strapped up to a row of strange machines. The machines were made out of blue metal. Each one had a thick, square base with a metal circle about twice the size of a full grown human rising out of it. At regular intervals of about 45 degrees, a small bar would stick out of the circle in the inside. These bars would generate some strange, compressed blue energy that appeared to resemble electricity in many ways. The four bars were each using the blue energy to lasso the boys' arms and legs to the machine.

"You are very evil people," the man with the hidden face told them. Alena could sense that he was very angry at the boys. As ironic as it might have been, she knew that while Team Thunder might have evil, those boys were probably more even more evil. It was one thing to perform mad experiments on people, but it was another thing to attack them, probably with the intent to kill them, for absolutely no reason.

Pikachu Hater, in-between the other two, flailed desperately. His mouth seemed sealed shut, most likely by the strange electricity. He could still move a little – the energy had some give to it – but for the most part, he was stuck in place.

"You've been stalking a girl, haven't you? She beat all three of you in the Pokémon League using her Pikachu. You wouldn't admit that she had won fair and square. You insisted she cheated. All of you weren't just out to beat her in a battle, were you? You actually tried to kill her Pikachu in the Pokémon League. You attacked the referee, in order to get away with it. Why? Because you're selfish bastards who think you're better than anyone who uses a Pokémon you find weak!" The speaker was still the man from before.

Pikachu Hater and one of his friends wore an identical scowl on their faces. One of them, however, looked somewhat guilty.

"You are all fools… evil, terrible fools. My precious Team Thunder has already gained a reputation for performing experiments on people against their will, thanks to the actions of one of the members lower than I… But, for you three, I simply see no other choice. I can't allow you to go after that girl…"

He took a step back, motioning for the six grunts to do their work. Three of them grabbed the vials, while three of them pulled out syringes. The ones with syringes first injected the boys with the lightest of the yellow fluid. Their eyes fluttered shut, and they all fell asleep within seconds. The second shot had no visible effect, but to Alena's dream logic, she knew that it was to make them numb.

The third one was like she was watching the video with Zane all over again.

Pikachu Hater was shrinking, exceedingly rapidly, until he was the same size as Electrinz. His clothes were still wrapped around his tiny body, but his head was visible. Yellow fur was covering his face, and his ears were becoming pointed.

Within seconds, a tiny, sleeping Pikachu was the only thing left of the boy.

A similar thing had happened with both of his friends. Three of the grunts held out their arms to catch them as the rest turned off the force field. The man gave the three a sad look as the grunts pulled off the now useless and very heavy clothing surrounding them.

"Poor boys…" he muttered, so quietly none of the grunts could hear. "They deserved it, but…"

The three Pikachu were placed in a small glass cage with a soft pillow at the bottom. They were starting to wake up as the effects of the medicine wore off. As soon as they realized what had happened to them, they let out unearthly wails and began to cry. They weren't acting like ruthless, evil men – they were acting like terrified babies.

Two of them continued to shriek even as they were lead down the hall to their temporary habitat. One of them just pressed himself against the wall of the cage, sobbing. A ways down the hall, they were wheeled into a room made to resemble a forest, with sun lights allowing a few small trees and bushes to grow. They allowed themselves to be picked up and set down on a different soft pillow in the habitat. The two were still screaming.

The man walked over to the silent one. Alena now realized that the man was unusually short. He picked up the terrified Pokémon and cradled him in his arms. "It's okay… we'll change you back later, it's okay…" The Pikachu still cried quietly. The man held him close to his body and let him continue. Eventually he would get tired and go to sleep again. Already, the other two were quieting down, losing the will to keep shouting.

"I'll keep him with me, okay?" the man told the grunts. They nodded and moved to allow him access to the door.

As he turned around, Alena recognized him as the man that had saved her from those same boys – Sparks.


	11. Novol

In the middle of a dream involving a trumpet, a Raichu, and shuffleboard, Alena was jerked awake by the annoying ringing of her Pokédex. Fumbling around in the pitch black of the room for a few seconds, Alena tried to get a look at the time. The clock read 2:45 AM. Whoever was calling her was going to get it.

The Pokédex was not supposed to receive calls, of course, but it appeared as though Alletto had modified it to have all of the PokéNav's functions. Alena snatched the device off of her bedside table and flipped it open moodily. When her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she could make out the name on the monitor – ALLETTO RUTILLUS.

"What the hell, Alletto," Alena growled before pressing the device's main button, hoping that it would function as the right button. A pleasing sound beeped before Alletto's picture appeared on the screen.

"I heard that, I'll let you know," he told her, frowning.

"It's two AM!"

Alletto rolled his eyes. "Please, that's nothing. And anyway, I didn't call to be insulted; I called because there's something important I had to tell you. You haven't been leaving Team Thunder alone, have you?" Alena raised her hands in protest. Alletto must have installed a decent video camera into the Pokédex, because he glared at the motion. "It's no use denying it, I've got a tracker on you. I've been comparing your position to those of the known bases, as well as listening in to some of your 'private' conversations. You said you were going back to the Safari Zone, which happens to be where Team Thunder's largest known base is…"

"My secret base is there!" Alena protested.

"Your base is about as secret as theirs, and you know it. They know that you have a base there – they know that you've messed up their plans. Alena, they're after you, surely. They're tracking you, watching you. The only person who knows your position better than me is them!"

"I'm pretty sure I know my own position quite well." Alletto chose to ignore her comment.

"The only reason they haven't swooped down on you and taken you away is because of the fact that you haven't managed to spread news of their evil plan around like wildfire yet. The only people who you've told have been people like me – we're capable, but we're still not old enough for them to pay attention to us. We're in limbo. We can't cause them any problems because we don't have any backup. Alena, listen to me. I know you don't want to sit around and do nothing, but you can't possibly think that you can take them on alone! Do you understand me?"

Alena gave an indignant sound. Alletto sighed.

"Alletto?" His head perked back up. "I'm not taking them on alone, and not just because you're on my side. I've got my Pokémon to help me, for one thing, and almost every one of Team Thunder's members is too weak individually to do anything to me. If we took them on nice and steady and picked off members one by one…"

"No," Alletto cut in. "What would you do, battle them? They're _trainers,_ Alena. They aren't some babies that just received their Pokémon. They're powerful, and they can heal on their own. They're smarter than you give them credit for. They're protected their bases with cloaking techniques so advanced, you can't even tell that something's there unless you're looking for it."

"You found that base near Lavaridge!" Alena protested.

"Like I said, I knew it was there. It still took me a good four hours to find."

Alena was starting to wonder if Alletto ever slept.

"On top of that, there's also the fact that even if you did manage to pick off the weaker members one by one, you'd still have a ton of trouble with the more powerful ones. The information you found on that man… you wouldn't stand a chance."

"Oh really?" Alena snapped. I'm _Great Rank!_ The only people stronger than me would have to be Hyper Rank or Master Rank – and there are only two hundred Master Rank people in the entire world!"

"Alena… that man is Zane Embyr, from Lilycove City. He _is _Master Rank, a certified 'Pokémon Master' like all kids seem to want to be until they finally grow up. He's traveled through five regions, and has enough Pokémon to sink a ship. Of course, he hasn't been heard from in ages – all of his Pokémon have been transferred to a different server, and he hasn't updated his Pokémon Training License in person for over ten years. But from what I've been able to gather, he specialized in Flying-types. You said he had a Staraptor? Well, that's one of the Pokémon that he was famous for when he used to train."

"This man… the Salamence guy… is a certified Master Rank trainer?"

"Yep. And now that he's a 'Salamence guy' as you put it, he's even more dangerous. The morphing process still isn't a perfectly refined thing, so who knows what's going on in his head. From what I can gather, he disappeared when he was around sixteen... right after he was awarded the Master Badge. He was always a weird guy though. In all of his interviews, he would ramble on about power and might and how he was going to be the most powerful person on the face of this world…"

"You don't think," Alena began, looking a bit tentative, "that he purposely joined Team Thunder so that they would come up with a way to transform him into a hybrid, do you?"

"It's not unlikely. From what I can tell, Team Thunder was founded a while back under a different name, but with a very similar purpose – Ampere Institution of Pokémon Deoxymetamorphysics. Basically, how to understand and code the Pokémon sort of DNA. They have the same basic structure as us – they just have six kinds of bases that allow them to be drastically different. But, there's still a way to make everything compatible, they just mess up all of the coding and put it back in the right order."

"All right, all right! Enough with the science lingo, it's only three AM now! What else did you find out about Team Thunder?"

"AIPD found a way to change the genetic coding of Pokémon, and then just sort of disappeared. But, the thing is, their logo was still almost exactly the same, with the same thunderbolt and the same text used for the letters – the only difference was that the T was an AIPD originally. Anyway, after changing their name, Thunder started to perform tests on willing human participants. They were already using Pokémon DNA on human subjects, but they were quite Pokémorphs yet – you see, they'd use the genetics of a Pokémon to heal the diseases that person had. They're even the ones responsible for curing a few of the most common diseases of the past decade or so…"

"Is there any information on the people involved? The founders?"

Alletto frowned and tapped some buttons on his keyboard. "Not much…"

Alena gulped. She knew that Alletto was very skeptical about dreams being prophetic, or any other sort of 'magic' for that matter. "Is there any information on someone named Daniel Sparks?"

Alletto's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Sparks? That's one of the names listed! D. Sparks… co-founder."

Alena turned away from the camera and cussed out a nearby wall for a brief period of time. After she regained her cool – or at least, enough of it for her to not spontaneously lash out at Alletto, she returned to the screen.

"Alena, what's going on?" he inquired, alarmed. "You're crying!"

"Am not," Alena insisted, wiping her eyes in spite of that. "I'm just… I met him, Sparks."

"What?" Alletto choked out.

"He didn't try to do anything. He just told me that he was looking for a Pokémon for a friend, and… well, he helped me."

"How could someone like that help you? It was all just a trick, Alena!"

"You weren't there!" she screamed. In the room above her, someone shouted something. Alena aimed a rude hand gesture at them before continuing. "So, there were these guys that were trying to _kill_ Electrinz and us in the Pokémon League, and they followed us all the way to Fallarbor. They had their Kadabra try to Psychic us to death, but they only managed to make us switch bodies and then Sparks had his Espeon put us back the way we were supposed to be…"

"Wait!" Alletto cut in, "They made you and Electrinz swap bodies?" Alena blushed, prompting Alletto to do the same. "Sorry," he muttered, "just seems awesome to be in the body of a Pokémon if it's not permanent."

"I had a dream about him though. He was the leader, or one of them, at least, and he… well… he had those boys that attacked me, and… he… erm… he turned them into Pikachu somehow."

Alletto flinched. "A… dream, huh? Well, he had an Espeon… so maybe he sent you that on purpose, or his Espeon did. So… it did happen, only you would only think it was a dream. I guess part of him wanted you to know that he was doing this… But, you say that they turned people directly into Pokémon?"

"Yeah, they lassoed them with some weird energy in this huge machine. Then they injected them with a sort of serum... and they turned straight into Pikachu. Sparks took one of them for himself because the poor kid was terrified… and I can't blame him." She shuddered. "On one hand, when I was stuck in Trinz's body, it was a lot of fun… but if you were stuck as being a Pokémon forever, it would be terrible. You wouldn't be able to talk to most of your friends or your family… you might not even be able to do most of the things you could do as a human, especially if you don't have opposable thumbs or the ability to walk upright. And if you were turned into a Pokémon you hated, like those boys were…"

Alena had a sudden vision of herself being forcibly transformed into a Rhyperior and gagged.

Alletto looked thoughtful though. "I bet that would be a pretty cool experiment, with consent. You would be given the opportunity to turn into a Pokémon from a random set you chose – your favorite, your least favorite, and a few random ones. I wouldn't mind seeing what it's like to be a Swampert or an Aggron… playing with my Pokémon…"

"Task at hand, Alletto, task at hand! These boys were forced into being a Pokémon they don't like, something that's probably the worst thing that could ever happen to you. If Team Thunder keeps doing this…"

Alletto winced. "Well, that's what I was calling you about. A ton of trainers just disappeared around Sootopolis with no trace. Sounds like Thunder to me."

"Sootopolis, huh… well, Wallace, the Gym Leader, is pretty strict when it comes to protecting his city, so he'd be sure to know if something weird was going on. Then again, Team Thunder is pretty sneaky… wait! You said Sparks was the cofounder! Who was the other person?"

Alletto adjusted his glasses and took a second look. "It says… 'D. Sparks' and 'A. Novol.'"

All of the color drained out of Alena's face. "No-Novol? That's not possible, how is it spelled?"

"N-O-V-O-L."

"But… but… that person, does it say where they're from? Somewhere in Hoenn, right?"

"Nope, Johto. Olivine City."

Alena made a sound like a small Pokémon being hit with a Low Kick. "Novol, from Johto. Alletto, _Novol is my mother's maiden name. Her entire family was from Johto!"_

Alletto's head jerked up. "But then that means!"

"That other person is related to _me!"_


	12. The Open Sea

"Rock. Rock. Another rock."

Surfing with a Pokémon was supposed to be a very peaceful event. Swimmers and Triathletes would always shout envious comments to Alena as she rode by on a wooden raft pulled by Whishcast, saying how nice and warm and not tired she must be. In response, she shot rude hand gestures at them. She was cold, thank you very much, and probably much more tired than the creepily strong Trainers swimming in the ocean, seeing as how she hadn't slept at all lately. How long had it been? Nearing 40 hours now, she supposed. That was around the time you were supposed to start seeing things, but that didn't matter to Alena. She was already paranoid enough to see Team Thunder members popping out of nowhere and leering at her.

Man, it was weird to think how quiet it was on the wide, blue ocean. It was probably nearly as quiet on land too, at least, if you were only considering talk about Thunder. No one seemed aware of their presence, as if they didn't exist. When Team Magma and Team Agua were around, people would blab about them all the time. "Oh no, the people in funny suits have stolen my Pokémon. Oh dear, they've taken our power. Oh heavens, the weather sure is strange today, I hope it stops soon." Granted, the average citizen was far too stupid to realize any of what the evil weirdoes were attempting to do, but at least they acknowledged their existence. With Team Thunder, it seemed like Alena was one of very few people who knew they existed.

Somewhere in the distance, a Latios soared over the water. Was it really there, or was she going crazy? It didn't matter to Alena. It wasn't like the Latios had the ability to make people realize that there was a huge corporation turning people into Pokémon.

Surfing with a Pokémon was supposed to be a very peaceful event. Alena knew that was a lie, because when you were all alone with only your Pokémon, you could be overpowered in a second. There was no one there to see you attacked, to hear your screams. That's why the trainers had been disappearing from here. There was no one there to help.

Why wasn't she Flying to the city? Alena really didn't know. She had a hunch, and her hunches were usually correct. They had told her to start training Pokémon when she was ten, instead of just becoming a doctor or whatever everyone else wanted her to be.

"You're a smart girl," her parents had told her. "Why would you want to be a trainer? It's a very difficult job, and everyone wants to do it."

"I'd be good at it. It's the only thing I _would _be good at. I don't want to be a doctor or a scientist or anything else because I'm not _interested."_

"It's a very competitive market," they told her. "You need to have a backup."

Alena knew that was another way for them to say that she was going to fail.

In the middle of the ocean, undoubtedly within the vicinity of a group of people that wouldn't hesitate to kidnap her, Alena laughed. Everyone always thought she would fail, but covered it up with false comfort. It was kind of funny, really. The only human person she was close to was Alletto, and maybe Garnet. All of the others weren't _real_, they just did what society told them to do.

Jade was supposed to be a trainer. She was the daughter of a Gym Leader – it was just what she was supposed to do.

Her mom was a gardener. Her father was a reporter for Petalsburg's newspaper. Neither of them came from families known for being good trainers. They weren't supposed to have been taught anything about Pokémon training. Neither was Alena, but she had gotten around that. She was supposed to be an ordinary person, but fate had prevented that. She could speak to Pokémon, and that gave her the ability to learn about the things that they knew about. She was able to train because fate had given her a love for it…

Pikachu Hater and his posse were nasty because teenage boys were supposed to be cool and win everything, not be stopped by a 'child's Pokémon.'

Then there was Alletto, who was a genius, but was shunned by others because he practically lived his entire life in his bedroom. They said that he should go outside more. Why? He would be happier. Okay. He went on a Pokémon Journey. He got all of the badges in Hoenn. He got a tan. He collected a bunch of Pokémon that had become his friends and milled around his enormous house. Now, he lived in his room and modified devices to his pleasure. He commanded groups of trainers in every region, telling them where to go and what to do if an emergency arose. He had been happy on his journey. He was happy now, too.

The world would always be there to look at some other day. There was something he wanted to do first, in the here and now.

The breeze over the water was freezing, bringing Alena out of her thoughts. She had to go to Sootopolis and scale the sides of the mountainous basin surrounding the city, because that's what her hunch was telling her. She listened to it.

"Whishcast, swim over to the right side," Alena instructed as the enormous white peak appeared in the distance. The tiny Pokémon happily complied. Alena grabbed Electrinz's Safari Ball off of her belt and waited for the raft to get closer to the rocky formation. As soon as was physically possibly, she jumped off of the raft and clambered up onto the rock, releasing Electrinz at the same time. She recalled Whishcast and left the raft there. Someone else would undoubtedly find it and use it.

"_What are you doing?" _Electrinz questioned. _"Why are we… on the outside of Sootopolis?"_

Alena gave him an annoyed look. "Don't give me that, I know you hear through the Poké Balls."

"_I haven't the faintest idea what you're speaking about."_

"We're climbing up the mountain in order to look for Wallace. Something tells me he's around here somewhere." Electrinz's ears twitched, and he turned to look past Alena, towards the top of the mountain. "Is something there?" Alena asked before turning to look herself.

At the very tip of the basin, a tiny white cottage-looking sort of thing waited. It took Alena a few seconds to figure out what it was – a guardhouse, where someone could look over the ocean and see if anyone needed help out in the open waters.

"_Do you think that's Wallace's place?"_ Electrinz asked.

"Probably. He seems like the type to do completely messed up things like build a building all the way up there." Alena grabbed onto one of the rocks and started to climb up, followed closely behind by Electrinz. They made their way up slowly, without anything of any real interest happening. A rock slide nearly swept them off, but at the last second it changed direction. Alena didn't really care about the rock slide, nor did she count it in the "things of interest" section of the trip. As far as she was concerned, anything not involving Wallace or Team Thunder didn't matter at all.

When they finally reached the peak, a man with blue hair and a long cape was waiting for them.

"Alena?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing over here? Why did you climb all the way up here from the water?"

"Long story," she panted, neglecting to give any sort of explanation. "But there are more important things to discuss. What's going on around here? My friend told me that something's been kidnapping people!"

Wallace sighed and took a seat on a nearby stone. "People have been mysteriously disappearing from under the nose of the police and myself. I've sent my Pokémon out to scout, but it never amounts to much as they always appear on my doorstep the next day, knocked out. Whatever's taking the people is undoubtedly strong…"

"Team Thunder?" Alena ventured.

"Oh, undoubtedly. I've told everyone in the town that as long as they're in a group, they'll be fine, but now even groups are starting to get taken. Then I told everyone to get a Ground-type to protect them, but ever since the Groudon incident… well, people are just being unreasonable about everything and anything." Wallace sighed. Something about his annoyment made Alena feel a little bit better.

"They probably have a base somewhere underwater. They have one underground and one inside an active volcano, so there's no telling what else they could have made a place suitable for their bases."

Wallace pulled something out of his pocket and circled two places on it with a purple marker. "There are… five known bases in Hoenn then, and eight throughout other parts of the country. One in Mt. Chimney, and one by Lilycove – I've heard those two before, but you confirmed it. There's one by Pacifilog, and another north of Rustboro. Finally, there's supposedly one in the jungle outside of Fortree somewhere. Then there are two rumored spots – on the north of Ever Grande Island, and one out to the west of Sootopolis." Wallace pointed out across the ocean. "That's why I had this guard tower built. To find out if I could see any of their ships or Pokémon out on the water and capture them."

Alena nodded absentmindedly. "Do you have any idea what they're doing?" she asked him.

"Other than kidnapping people? No. You?"

"Only that they're experimenting on them," she lied. He frowned.

"Someone I know saw them before," Wallace began. "Steven Stone. They were in Meteor Falls, and he chased them out. He followed them all the way to the one in Rustboro on the back of his Metagross."

"Steven?" Alena exclaimed. "The Champion?"

"Well, of course," Wallace said with a strange look. "But even he had trouble with the team members there. He never fully explained to me what happened there, but whatever it was, it was bad."

Alena shuddered involuntarily. Before Wallace could say anything, she pulled away from him and whipped out her Pokédex. "Where is Steven at right now?" she questioned.

"He went to a far away region in search of more stones for his collection. Sinnoh, I think." Alena nodded and typed the name into the 'Dex.

"_Are we going to look for him?" _Electrinz asked.

"It's our best chance. I'll get tickets to 'Sinnoh' and have Sander Fly us to Lilycove."

Wallace looked concerned. "Are you okay, Alena?" he asked.

"Fine," she muttered. "Just got a bunch of things that need to be done, and not enough time…"

Wallace sighed. "Hey, listen: you be careful, okay? You're still young and shouldn't overexert yourself…"

Alena stared at him with an annoyed expression. It was obvious that she was exhausted. "I'll be just fine."

As she left on the back of her Dragon-type, with Electrinz in her lap, Wallace felt a shudder of fear go through his body. What was it? A prediction of something bad? Whatever it was, he knew that something was seriously up with Alena. She wasn't telling him something.

She overestimated herself.


	13. Dreams Grow on Trees

Alena had another weird dream that night.

It wasn't like the one before. There was no sign of Team Thunder. Her Pokémon were nowhere to be found either. She was not wearing her normal clothes, nor was she wearing her pajamas. She had on a blue, flowing sort of dress that swept all the way down to her feet. Her hair was pulled back in golden clasps, and her sandals looked as though the straps were made out of a gold foil instead of leather.

She was in the middle of a huge cobblestone road, with thick grasses on either side of the path. To her right, a forest that appeared as though it had been around since ancient times stood with the trees waving gently in the breeze. The sky above was unusually blue, and the green vividly green. To her left, the grassy field continued on for a while before eventually giving way to sand and rock. A beach. The waves were enormous and sent up huge sprays of white foam whenever they clashed against the rocks.

"Well, this is sure _interesting," _Alena said in a bored tone that suggested just the opposite. "I'm in the middle of nowhere without anyone else, and my clothes have been turned into some sparkly princess crap. Great." So saying, the girl kicked a nearby rock and started down the path. She had to arrive somewhere if she just kept moving – it wasn't like she could keep walking forever and not run into anything.

It was the same, all around her. No Pokémon. No humans. No life, except for the plants, which really weren't all that much like plants to begin with. They were too bright, too vivid – they had bright lime greens, deep forest greens, and soothing olives all on the same tree. The flowers on the trees, if they had them, were in all the colors of the rainbow and absurdly extravagant. To amuse herself as she made her way through Who-Knows-Where, Alena made it her mission to look for the most absurd, over the top looking plant. The winner was this: a plant that started off modestly enough, with a stout, pleasant looking base covered in thick brown bark, sort of like a small tree. This soon gave way to multicolored palm leaves with darker shades near the base of the leaf and lighter ones, nearly white, at the tip. Perched on top of this strange growth was a sizable fruit – like an apple, if apples were the size of watermelons. This fruit was a vivid shade of magenta, although the bottom of it was a deeper red.

"Well, I think I've finally gone and snapped," Alena said. The sound of her voice calmed her down, even though her heart was racing. "I'm in the middle of some weird place, I'm all alone, and my only company is a bunch of stupid looking plants. I guess Team Thunder must have done something to me. Hmmm. Maybe I died, and this is what the afterlife looks like. Bit of a disappointment. None of the stories I've heard about what the afterlife is supposed to look like mentioned a long path, an ocean, and a bunch of funny bushes. Well, whatever. Whatever god lives here must have a really strange imagination."

_Obviously._

The voice came out of nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It wasn't a loud voice – it was a quiet, golden voice that seemed to emanate from Alena even though she was only hearing it. The trees and their stupid fruit were talking to her. The same with the cobblestone road and the grass touching it. Yep. She had lost it.

Suddenly, and without any sort of rhyme or reason, the road beneath her feet began to glow. Alena would have jumped off of the road into the relative safety of the grass, were it not for the fact that her feet seemed to have come down with a bad case of Stick To Random Object-itis. Instead of clearing the road and falling into the grass, she simply fell over her own feet, landing at an awkward and rather painful angle.

"All right!" she snapped, rolling out of the position that she had fallen in. "You! Voice! Cut this crap out and show yourself like a man!"

_Humph. As you wish._

A ball of light shot out of the road like a ping pong ball shooting out of a cannon. Alena would have normally made the effort to scream and cover her eyes, all the while cursing the ball of light out and telling it that it had destroyed her vision _forever_. However, she had bigger things to worry about as the light floated back down towards Earth like a feather in the breeze. By the time that it reached the ground, it had settled back into a solid, human form.

_I warn you – you are in great danger right now._

With those ominous words, the light faded. Rather, it exploded. Shards of light shot off of the figure like glass. Most people would have screamed at this as well, but Alena's thought process wasn't like that of most people.

_Light Screen. Normally a sign that the Pokémon using it has some form of Psychic or Electrical powers. Raises Special Defense for a short period of time, and can be broken by Brick Break…_

_Hey! _The voice cut in.

Alena looked up at the being in front of her with a bored look. It was a little girl, probably around ten years old. She was wearing a pink dress and a pink headband with two weird nubs stuck into it. The nubs made it look like she had ears sticking up out of her head. Her feet were bare, and her wide blue eyes were scrunched up in a rather annoyed sort of way.

_So, you're it…_ Alena thought to herself.

_I'm _it? the being screeched. _I'm more than just it! I'll have you know that I rule this place, and there's only one being stronger than me! _The being suddenly seemed to calm down. _Of course, there's no way for you to know that when I appear looking like this. But I was just doing what you asked, really – you did ask me to show myself "like a man," so I turned myself into a human for your own benefit! Wasn't that nice of me?_

"Sure. Real nice. Whatever," Alena told the strange girl. "But that's not the point here. I want to know a few questions. First, who the heck are you? Second, where are we? Third, why am I here? And finally, why am I dressed like _this?"_

The little girl giggled as though Alena had just told the funniest joke in the world, not exploded in a huge, angry outburst. _You're funny. I like you! _Alena's hands curled into fists and it looked like she was about to smack the offending creature for daring to call her funny. To Alena, the creature was just making fun of her – funny, sure. More like funny _looking. _Ha ha ha. Like she hadn't heard that a million times.

_Not like that! _the creature squealed, holding up her hands in a sign of innocence. _I like you because you are funny – most of the people around here have no sense of humor. And, what's more, they always bother me with their "please" this and "sorry" that and "thank yous" all around. It's disgusting! I've almost forgotten what it's like to be insulted, disobeyed, and disrespected! I like you! I haven't seen someone like you in a long time! In fact… I'll even show you what I actually look like, and I don't do that for just anyone! _

The same light came across the creature, but now instead of shattering a Light Screen like way, it merely faded into nonexistence after a brief moment. Before Alena had a chance to see or say anything, a pink blur shot towards her face and wrapped around her in a big hug.

"Oi! Gettoff!" Alena started to pull the creature off of her, but stopped when she caught sight of the face. A tiny little catlike hair, covered in tiny pink hairs. Two pointy little ears, and a pair of huge blue eyes. Then there was the tail. The long, flexible tail that was currently coiled around Alena's arms, preventing her from doing anything. "You're… Mew!"

_That's my name!_ Mew chirped happily. _And this place is the main hub of the Dream Realm! It's where all dreams are hatched! See those fruits? Those are dreams! But those ones are wild and sometimes scary, because they grow out here in the wild. That's where nightmares come from – the fruit that grows outside! But the ones that are grown in our castle's greenhouse… they're nice and tame! They're the nicest dreams that you could ever know! Sometimes, I wish I could take them out for walks… but Arceus says that they aren't alive, and I don't want to make him angry, so I just accept what he tells me…_

As the Psychic-type went on, Alena could feel herself getting more confused by the minute.

_So, the reason I brought you here! Arceus told me to. Arceus is another one of the legendary Pokémon. He claims to have created the world… but we Pokémon all know that's not the truth. We still remember the Creator! He was nice, but he wasn't Arceus. He was a human… and we haven't seen him for a while, so if anyone else claims to be the creator, there's not much we can do to convince them otherwise. That's the problem with Arceus. He thinks that he created everything, even though we all know that it's not true and that he couldn't have possibly designed everything! But, we reached an agreement – he gets to have all the humans worship him as the creator, while all the Pokémon of the world would be ruled under me! So… I'm really at the head of everything, because the humans haven't really been up to anything, so Arceus isn't busy. But Pokémon? I swear, you can't keep them calm! They're always stubbornly trying to evolve only to decide that they don't like their new forms, and then I have to change them back. And don't even get me started on the ocean fiasco. Both Manaphy and Phione are fighting against Lugia, who's fighting against Kyorge…. Honestly! Sometimes I don't know what Creator was thinking when he made all of the other legends so impossible to control!_

Alena was still staring at Mew with a blank look on her face.

_All right,_ the Psychic-type sighed. _I'll get down to the good stuff, already. Team Thunder is doing terrible things. You know that. You've seen one of their creations – that Salamance dude. Guy is no good – he did it willingly, for power. There's nothing that can be said in defense of some of their other experiments, however… terrible things are happening, and more terrible things are to come. You are in danger, Alena… there are things that you cannot see coming that I can, and the things I have seen…_ The legend laughed. _I oversee dreams. I have seen the dreams of most girls. Many of them dream of meeting me. They dream of me reading their future, the path that fate has set out for them. But the things they dream… the wonderful miracles and perfect lives… that is not the truth of what I see. I see pain and joy together… and in your case, the two will someday come to you at the same time._

_You are in danger, Alena…_

_Arceus has called you here. But he is not going to meet you now. He wanted me to talk to you… the two of us rarely agree on anything, but both of us have seen your fate. You are important, Alena… not because you will be an important player in the final battle – that belongs to another. No, you are important because you bridge a gap. You are between worlds – a human that seems to enjoy the company of Pokémon more than her fellow humans. You don't really belong in either. And that is why you are important. _Mew released her grip on the girl and put a paw on her shoulder.

_For once, you must rely on your heart, rather than your brain. Your brain can trick you, tell lies… but your heart is always pure. It never lies… but sometimes, you might not want to hear the truth…_

Mew sighed. Alena swore that the world around her was melting like… a dream.

_You, who are trapped between two worlds: you think that you fit in neither. But really, you are blessed, because no one fits into the world they are supposed to. You are simply lucky enough to have two to spread out that pain between…_

_Tee hee hee!_

_Alena!_

They're _near _Pacifilog Town!


	14. Doom Ship

_Dear Diary…_

_Where to begin?_

_Boats suck. I'll start there._

In the middle of the night, Alena suddenly jolted out of a deep sleep as the ship's horn boomed like a tremendous thunderbolt. She had the feeling that she had just had an important dream, but whatever it was, she was having trouble remembering it. There was something about a dream within a dream, and Pacifilog Town had been mentioned. Maybe she had gone there? Maybe, but it was unlikely. She had never even been there herself, so there was no way for her to know what it actually looked like. A bunch of houses on rafts, from what she had heard. Nothing too terribly exciting.

Now that she was up, there was no chance of her going back to sleep. She turned to look at the clock on the bedside table – 4:00 AM. Great. Now she was going to have to search for this Steven person on just six hours of sleep. Just peachy.

Next to her, Electrinz and Twig snored under the covers. Pokémon seemed to have some sort of supernatural ability to sleep through anything, including falling asleep in the middle of battle. Sure, most of the time that was brought on by some sort of move, like Sing or Hypnosis, but still – how was it that the opponent could toss them around the battlefield, and for a few minutes, the only thing that they could do was snore at them?

"Wake up!" Alena hissed, throwing the covers off of the duo. "We've got work to do, and you two aren't going to get your beauty sleep while I figure out what the heck we're supposed to do next!" Twig rolled over onto his side, grumbling, but Electrinz shot off of the bed and onto the desk in the room's kitchen area.

"_Beauty sleep? Hah! As if I could be any more beautiful!"_

"Make yourself useful and go turn off the lights. I've got work to do." Alena walked over in the general direction of the closet while Electrinz took his sweet time reaching the light switch. She managed to trip over three bags, Whishcast's Poké Ball, and a tin of popcorn in the time it took her to find her backpack. Electrinz turned on the light just as soon as she pulled her notebook out of the bag. When she turned to look at him, he was grinning from ear to ear, as though he had just won the lottery.

"I thought Pikachu were supposed to be fast," she grumbled, rubbing the grit out of her eyes.

"_Someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, huh?"_

"I'm tired!" she snapped. "You try having normal responses to loud noises when you're asleep! You'll get ticked off _real _easily!"

"_So… are you _always _tired, or are you just in a permanent bitch mode?"_

_By that point, I had decided to just ignore him and go on with my plans. _

_So, I had started to make a list of all the things I knew so far. Well… I mean _all_ of the things. You see, this notebook… well, I had a tendency of unloading whatever was on my mind at the time on it. Therefore, I had to flip past a few pages of battle strategies, pictures of Jade as an ogre, and a few more diary entries like this one. There really weren't many, I should try and write down more. I mean, it's not like anyone reads these things. Everyone claims that my writing is Pidgey-scratch anyway, and then there's the fact that the only people who even know about it are my Pokémon. And Pokémon… well, from what I can gather, most of them can _read_ human the same way they can understand spoken human, and well, I just can't follow how that works. However, the scientists of the world tend to think that Pokémon can't see in color, so that would mean that they can't see the light handwriting against the paper because it's basically the same color anyway and most human guys can't even see it, so…_

… _I'm really beginning to regret… inking… those… pictures. Erm… Let's just hope that Electrinz doesn't find any of those. Unless he's secretly drawing pictures of what I look like as a Pikachu, I really don't want to know what he'd think of me drawing pictures of him as a human._

_ANYWAY moving past that, there's something far more interesting and important to focus on, so I'll skip to the good part. I had just taken out the notebook, when there was a horrible screech and the whole ship started to shake as though there was an earthquake on board. I was hoping that it was just some n00bs trying to train their Torterra or Golem on board, but then I remembered that it was _4 AM. _There was no way that some kids were out training. Something was up. I shoved my notebook into my backpack, recalled Twig to his Poké Ball (he was still being a lazy lump and rolling around on the bed in varying stages of unconsciousness) and started to shove anything and everything that could be useful into my backpack. I shoved in my first Pokédex, the updated one that Alletto had modded, my PokéNav, a few rolled-up maps, and two pairs of clothes. It turned out that Electrinz had done the same – quickly thinking, he had grabbed his tin of cheesy popcorn. It was around his height, but he was hefting it around like it was weightless. Sometimes I really wonder about him. He claims that cheese is just delicious, and Pikachu love the taste, but then I start to wonder if it's really some sort of addictive drug to them. _

_As soon as the two of us ran out the door, we knew that something was up. Why? Well, water was gushing down the wall at an alarming rate, and, swarming around the hall…_

"_It's them!"_ Electrinz hissed, throwing his popcorn aside and arming a Thunderbolt at the water pooling around our feet. The Thunder grunts milling around the halls fell flat on their behinds as the electricity shot through the salty water with the speed of a bullet. Alena swung onto a table using a hanging light like a vine. She landed a bit too far and almost fell into the dangerous waters, but quickly jumped to the next table, a smaller one housing a vase. This one teetered dangerously, so she continued to the next one, which had once held a picture frame of sorts, and from there just kept going. All of the tables were far too small for her to stay on.

"_Brilliant idea!" _Electrinz chirped from beside her. He was still paddling through the water, sending out the occasional Thunderbolt and shocking the crap out of the grunts that dared go down that hallway.

"Oh yes. _Completely_ intentional!" Alena snapped, swinging off of another hanging light and – finally – reaching the end of the hallway and landing on the safety of the stairs. Electrinz pulled himself out of the water, stopped his stream of sparks, and clambered onto Alena's shoulders before she could get in another word.

"_What's the next move, huh?" _

"I dunno, how about _getting off the sinking ship of doom?"_

_After a brief period of time during which nothing particularly interesting happened (mostly due to the fact that despite the fact that they worked with Electric-types, Team Thunder grunts were completely undefended against a good Thunderbolt) we finally reached the top of the stairs. The deck lay beyond the doors, and I knew that whatever had happened to the ship, we would realize it when we got out there… but I certainly didn't expect what happened next…_

It was pitch black outside, so dark that you were lucky if you could see your hand in front of your face. There was a strange feeling on the deck – a feeling like a storm was about to arrive, that tense sort of air that preceded a thunderstorm. Indeed, as soon as Alena stepped out onto the deck, a huge bolt of lightning slammed into the sea, not more than a mile away. Things were starting to look bad…

They got worse when all of the ship's lights suddenly turned back on. A Luxray was sitting in the middle of the ship, connecting the circuit that the lights of the deck all ran on. It looked as though Team Thunder had manually disconnected all of them.

Then, on a platform behind the Luxray, Zane walked into view.

The changes that had taken place since she last saw him were enormous. He was entirely blue – no human skin was left on his body. His hands were twisted and claw-like, and his eyes were the eyes of a predator. On his back, two small red crescent shaped wings moved back and forth slowly, as if testing the winds of the storm. When he opened his mouth, his teeth were long and pointed, like daggers. "You finally got here," he growled. "I was starting to wonder what had taken you so long. Surely, those buffoons on the ship couldn't have given you any trouble, could they? They're too weak to stand up against beginning trainers, even! No… you merely had trouble because of the ship's flooding. Of course." He laughed to himself.

"This is a ferry, you moron!" Alena screamed. "There are tons of people here that haven't done anything to you!"

"Of course," Zane growled. "They will have been taken care of already, ay? Our captain made sure of it. After all, a captain will do anything to save his ship – or, shall we say… almost anything?" Zane pulled out a vial full of a neon green fluid and held it against the light. "This is the same serum used on me. One shot and you'll begin to turn into a "Pokémorph," as they are sometimes called. Of course, take too many and you'll go all the way… but, it seems that the mere threat of being turned into a Fire-type was enough for the captain to surrender this hunk of metal.

Electrinz shot out a Thunderbolt without warning, but Zane simply sidestepped the attack. Alena, meanwhile, was sent crashing to the ground with the force of the attack's whiplash.

"Not good!" Alena gasped, pulling herself to her feet in desperation. "Electrinz, hold your fire!" She grabbed the three other Poké Balls off of her belt and threw them in front of her. "All four of you, now! Just like we rehearsed!"

A smile crossed Zane's face, but his eyes gave away his fear. There was no way for him to know what would happen next – right?

A huge tidal wave slammed into the side of the ship, followed by another one on the other side. Alena grabbed onto one of the umbrellas stuck into the deck and held on for dear life as her Pokémon started their combination attack. Whishcast's eyes glowed a deep blue as Electrinz shot a Thunderbolt into the gathering clouds. All at once, the rain clouds released their burden on the ship below, torrential rain sweeping across the ship. Twig charged up his Leaf Blades and started to cut down the rest of the umbrellas on the ship with the beams that were produced from the edges while Sander slammed into the Luxray and grabbed him by the neck. As she tossed the Electric-type overboard, Whishcast used the tidal waves and the rain to her advantage. The water leapt out of the sea and started to crash onto the deck from all directions. Electrinz hopped on Sander's back as Alena finally let go of the umbrella. Zane started to fly out of the way of the tidal waves, but his wings were too small to get airborne. Sander swept up and grabbed Alena just as the girl wrapped her arms around Whishcast. The tiny Pokémon sent a frigid beam out of her mouth – Ice Beam – and started to shoot at random, causing balls of ice to freeze parts of the deck completely. Zane was right in the crosshairs – but…

He had grabbed Twig.

"We just can't win, can we?" Alena sighed and leapt off the Dragon-type's back, falling straight down to the Pokémorph belong. Zane grinned and whipped out another vial from his pocket, this time bright blue. She was going to fall right onto the syringe…

Instead, Zane disappeared in a flash of blue light, just as the lights on deck flickered out. Alena felt Sander's talons grab her and then the ship started to shrink off into the distance…

_And so… it would appear… that the entire thing was a setup. That wasn't Zane. It was a hologram._

_And now, from the room I'm writing in, in some town called "Sandgem," I'm afraid that the real one is still hot on our trail…_


	15. Searching in Sinnoh

"So, she gave you the slip, eh?" Alena grinned.

"She did not!" Garnet's protesting voice called out. "Jade and I traveled together for a while before she decided that she had better get back to see her father at the Gym, and-"

"She _hates_ her father. She refuses to talk to him. They had a huge fight because she beat him and he found out that she had cheated. She had taken a Fighting-type away from some little kid on the street and was probably not going to give it back. Her father refused to give her the badge, and so she refuses to talk to him…"

"Alena!" Garnet snapped in a rather un-Garnet-like fashion. "Don't say such things about her! She's a perfectly polite, kind woman! You're just jealous because she's so pretty and mild-natured!"

"You only say that she's so great because she's got enormous-!"

CALL ENDED the screen announced. Alena swore and threw a nearby pen at the computer screen. Garnet was… infuriating. Most people were, actually. Alletto was one of the few people who didn't make Alena want to punt him into the wall every five seconds. Granted, she still wanted to punt him into the wall some of the time, but not as much as normal.

All right, screw Garnet. She had better things to do anyway. She had to find that Steven guy and ask him for… what, exactly? Information, probably, but it would be nice to have someone else on their side, fighting against Team Thunder – especially against someone who wasn't another child. But what exactly was she supposed to do until she found the guy? Skip around merrily? That wasn't going to do anything. Team Thunder was watching her. They _wanted _her for some strange reason. They didn't just take her away like most of the people they were after – they played around with her, let her sneak out of their grasp at the last second. What was this game that they were at? Did they want to scare her? Weaken her? Make her confused? If so, they had succeeded at two out of three. She was exhausted, had an enormous gash on her leg, and she hadn't eaten very much in the past two days apart from apples and bread. She was incredible confused, as everything seemed to connect in places that they shouldn't connect in, and the things that should be connecting together weren't.

Scared, though? Nope. She had no fear of them. She had some sort of value, she knew – they had recruited her when they discovered her power! But… they let her go even after she had refused to help them in their insane goals. There must be something else, some other reason why they would leave her alone…

A tiny little thought came up in the back of her mind, but Alena shoved it aside. She wasn't going to think of that, not ever again. No. She refused. It… it was too much for her to take in.

Oh crap… it was coming back. She needed to get her mind off of that. It wasn't healthy for her to feel this bad over seemingly nothing. She had to do something else. She should battle someone! There had to be someone to fight! She looked around the room wildly, as though expecting a trainer to fall into her lap. Nothing. Of course – it was the middle of the day, and she was in one of the smaller rooms in the center where all of the computers were housed. If she wanted to find a trainer to fight, she would have to go outside where the rest of the trainers were undoubtedly traveling.

Just as she was about to log off of the computer and find some poor n00bs to beat up on, a new message popped up on the screen. MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM ALLETTO R.

And now Alletto was bothering her. Oh well. She was used to it by now. He probably had some super important task for her to do that would eat up more of her time and make her even more tired, and then…

"_It's no good to focus on the negative, child."_ Alena jerked her head towards the sound of the noise only to find a tiny little Abra floating in midair next to one of the terminals.

"How long have you been floating there?" Alena asked cautiously. The Pokémon didn't look very strong – the only move that Abra could learn without the help of a TM was Teleport, the last time she had checked. However, it was still a Psychic-type, and if it belonged to one of Team Thunder's members…

"_I am not one of them,"_ the Pokémon spoke into her head. _"I know who they are though. They took my trainer and friends. I'm the only one who escaped, because he told me to Teleport away… but the others… I wasn't strong enough to take them with me…"_

Alena was still wary. "If that's the case… then why were you watching me like that?"

"_I heard you thinking. You think…"_

Alena spat it out before the Abra could say it. She felt that it was something she had to face on her own. "Yeah, that the leader of the whole thing is related to me somehow. 'A. Novol.' That's my mother's maiden name. But she never told me that she had any siblings! But then again, if your sister is evil, you probably don't want anyone to find out. And then…" A strange look came over Alena's face.

"_Aha! Just figured something out, haven't you?"_

"My ability… the ability to understand all Pokémon… it's not very well documented, but a ton of people think that it's genetic. That would mean that other people in my family would have a higher chance of having the same thing! And, from my own experiences, if you can understand your Pokémon, your bond with them grows amazingly fast, and… you sometimes feel closer to them than you do to people." Alena blushed. "That's my problem, I guess… I don't like people. They're too noisy and dirty, and…"

"_Humans can be very mean,"_ the Abra finished. _"I know. My trainer had to run away from home in order to train me. His father was a very cruel man and did not want him to leave…"_

The two sat in silence for a moment. Alena thought about breaking the silence the entire time, but it took her at least ten minutes to think of something fitting to say.

"What are you going to do? You can't just let your trainer stay with Team Thunder. They're mad. They have a Salamance guy on their side! Who knows what they'll do to him if you don't get him back!"

"_I am too weak,"_ Abra sighed. _"There is nothing I can do alone to help him. The people that were in that building were terrifying. I don't think that there's any one person who could possibly take them down. Even if all of the Elite Four guys that my trainer told me about came to the bad place and attacked them, they'd still have a hard time. There's nothing I can do, so I'm just waiting for the chance to do something about it that won't end with me stuffed on one of their goon's desks."_

Alena winced. "I'm so sorry… I wish I could help you, but I just saw how powerful they are firsthand. My Pokémon and I were beaten up by a hologram of one of their guys…"

Abra gave her a strange look.

"It's true! I'm not entirely sure how they managed to make a huge hologram like that and broadcast it where they did, but I know it happened! I thought that they were going to turn me into a Pokémon the whole time, and-"

Abra suddenly covered her ears with her paws and curled up into a ball. _"No more, please… I saw the ideas going through the heads of the people there… the Thunders wanted to turn my trainer into an Eevee, I think. They kept typing things into this huge machine, and then my trainer was put into a huge room with a bunch of other humans. I escaped before anything else could happen, but I was still afraid that something terrible was going to happen… but I ran away, so if it did, it's all my fault…"_ Tears were beginning to form at the corners of the Psychic-type's eyes.

"It's not your fault," Alena told her. "You couldn't have done anything to them. I promise, I'm going to get your trainer back to you. I just need to find a way to reverse what they're doing, and then everything will go back to normal…"

Abra sniffed and uncurled her body. _"Are you sure that you can reverse it? What if they did turn Tim into an Eevee? Will he remember me? What if they eat him?"_

"They won't eat him," Alena told her. "That much is certain. Because the leader (if they do have the same power as me) would be turning people into Pokémon for some other reason. Maybe she thinks that doing so would make the world a better place…"

The tiny yellow Pokémon looked at Alena with a heartbroken look on her face. _"I don't think it would be a good place. I think there need to be people…"_

"You know what? I think you're right. And that's quite funny, really – a tiny Pokémon having a great deal more sense than a whole team of people…"

"_I'm going back to my hidden place. It's the place where my trainer and I played together. I think that he'll go back there if he gets out somehow."_

"Good luck…" Alena started to say – but the tiny Pokémon had already disappeared.

Weird… the way that had just happened. Alena felt as though she were still being watched by someone. She glanced back at the screen, which was still cheerfully announcing the fact that Alletto had sent her a message. There was something in the air, something that smelled like Team Thunder. Alena hurried to log off of the computer despite its protests and unplugged her Pokédex from the terminal. As she headed out of the room, she looked around at every person in the general area, carefully scanning them to see if they were a member of Team Thunder. There was no way for her to tell, of course, but it comforted her to think of the Thunder members as having enormous, obvious T's on their clothing.

She opened the door to her room to find the place empty. All of her Pokémon were probably in their Poké Balls, sleeping. Well, besides Electrinz, because he hated sleeping in his ball. Then where was he? That mystery was solved when Alena walked into the adjacent bedroom and found the Pikachu sleeping on top of her pillow. He was drooling on it too. Figures.

He didn't even twitch when she sat down on the end of the bed, so she took that as he cue to get everything done right away. She flipped open the Pokédex, let it load up the message, and pulled a chocolate bar out of her bag.

* * *

FROM: ALLETTO RUTILLUS

SUBJECT: THUNDER

Can't write much. Looking over the plans you found. Figured out how the thing works. There are two sets of DNA and they're held together in such a way that one is dominant over the other in certain spots. I think I've told you this before though. But there's something new – I found a hidden part of the document that talks about the things they've already done. There are four of these "Pokémorphs" – Zane, with Salamance is the first, of course. The other three are Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno. These three are immensely powerful, but they were mostly failed experiments. It's not that they don't do their job of battling well, it's just that their human intelligence is nearly gone. They don't think like Pokémon either. They're just _stupid_, but still very powerful.

I'm worried about you. Don't let your guard down.

Finally, there are a few people in the area that work for me. Look for the guy with the huge hat – you can't miss it. Find them and ask them what they've found. I haven't been in contact with them for a while.

Good luck, Alena. You're going to need it.


End file.
